1992 MID-MURRAY GRAND FINAL
LALBERT 10.11.71 def WOORINEN 7.18.60 “EAGLES Soar” was the headline in The Guardian almost 30 years ago following Lalbert’s 11-point win in the 1992 Mid-Murray Football League grand final – but as we delve into part two of this year’s Footy Finals Flashback series, perhaps the headline should have read “Drought Over”.
It had been 16 long and, at times, heartbreaking years for the Eagles since their previous taste of premiership success, with Lalbert’s one-point victory over Woorinen in 1976 the last time the silverware had headed out into the wheat belt. It wasn’t the last time they had made it to the big dance however, having been thereabouts for the best part of half a decade – including grand final losses to Swan Hill in both 1988 and 12 months earlier in 1991.
Thankfully for Lalbert however, they avoided the Swans in the 1992 finals series and instead faced Woorinen in the decider, after the Tigers took care of Swan Hill with a comfortable 60-point win in the preliminary final. Woorinen would be no pushover, however, having beaten Lalbert twice during the home-and-away season – by 29 points in round 8 and again in round 13 by 15 points.
But, by the time the finals rolled around, the Eagles were firing on all cylinders – with their coach Bernie Conlan having his team primed to turn the tables on the Tigers in the second semi-final – with Lalbert recording a 36-point victory – 11.14.80 to 6.8.44.
It was Conlan’s first season in charge of Lalbert, having previously coached both Berriwillock-Culgoa and Gellibrand River, before moving back home to the Mallee. The instalment of Conlan as coach proved to be a masterstroke for the Eagles following their disappointment 12 months earlier, with many of their team still hurting from their 52-point grand final loss the season before. Then, Lalbert kick had kicked themselves out of the game with a wasteful 10.19.
Conlan’s friendship with a number of Eagles players, including star defender Greg Allen, was the catalyst for his recruitment. Allen told The Guardian that while the playing squad was similar, it was the determination to not experience the pain of defeat again that helped propel them towards success – something that Conlan was the driving force behind.
“I knew Bernie before he came to Lalbert and I suppose I sort of had a bit of a hand in recruiting him,” Allen said. “But I feel as though with our ’92 team, we had some very good players, but I don’t think you’d look at the team and think we were an unbelievable side.
“I think we were just evenly spread across the ground and I think that was the key to our success – we had some talent, but we were just a really well balanced side and we all got along incredibly well.
“I remember our very first training run under Bernie and it was pretty low key.
“He’s a school teacher and I remember he sat us down like a bunch of school kids – although I didn’t think about it like that at the time – and he asked us what we wanted from the season.
“It was just nice and relaxed and casual and we all said we want to win a premiership, it was as simple as that – and it was never really spoken of again.
“But Bernie had a nice easy manner about him, he was always very calm and he was a great communicator so his message was always really clear and simple.
“From that day onwards, though, everyone just put their head down and we just worked towards our goal. But all of us were pulling in the same direction from that point forward and Bernie was the one who facilitated that.”
One of Conlan’s first tasks that season was to talk one of Lalbert’s most experienced players out of retirement – the 1989 Jack Betts medallist, Trevor Holt. Holt had played in both losing grand finals and at the age of 34 on the day Lalbert broke the drought, was ready to hang up the boots.
“Win or lose, that was going to be my last game,” Holt said.
“Bernie talked me into playing in 1992 – I was pretty much cooked by the end of 1991.
“Obviously, looking back, I’m glad he did now, but I went out there (to Lalbert) in 1981 and to finally get a flag was amazing – after that though, it was a good reason to retire.”
While Lalbert had the benefit of a week’s break and the confidence of knowing their best was good enough to beat the Tigers, they also knew they anything less than their best would likely see a repeat of 12 months earlier. Woorinen had a side stacked full of talent, with names like Trevor Ryan, Chris Wall, Richard Dow, Sam Pellegrino and Glenn Fitzpatrick – one of the league’s elite footballers.
“Fitzy was as good a player as I saw,” Conlan said.
“He was so good that we actually played Drew Meehan on him at centre half-forward just to try and take Fitzy out of the game.
“Drew never played there, but he was a very good negating player – we knew we had to do something to stop him because otherwise he would just control the game from centre half-back.
“We didn’t have the talent that they had, but we had some great determined players who played above themselves that day.”
With a strong wind favouring the Pritchard Street end greeting both sides, getting off to a good start would be imperative – but especially for Woorinen, who would have first use of the favourable conditions. The Tigers instead wasted their opportunities, kicking 1.5 to the Eagles’ two points. The opening Woorinen goal, by Mark Storer, did not come until the closing stages of the term.
It was then Lalbert’s turn with the wind, with the Eagles faring much better than their opposition, kicking five goals for the quarter – two from the boot of Mark O’Meara – to open up a 15-point lead at the main break.
While the Eagles made the most of their time with the breeze, it was their defensive work in the opening quarter that won them the game, Allen recalling Conlan imploring his team to just stay focused at the break.
“Bernie kept it pretty simple at the break – we knew we had a good team, but they had a very good team as well and they had talent on every line,” Allen said.
“We knew that if they got any sort of break on us then it would be hard for us to peg them back, so the message was to just keep it nice and tight.
“We’d played OK during the year, but they’d beaten us a couple of times so we knew that we were going to have to play at our best.
“After the first quarter, we sort of settled down a bit and started winning a bit of uncontested footy. John Cossar was in the ruck for us and he started to get out on his own a bit and then Brett O’Meara, who was at full forward, started to get his hands on the footy for us too.”
While the Eagles held the lead at half-time, Woorinen wouldn’t go quietly, with the Tigers whittling the lead down to just one point by the final break. They had kicked a wasteful 5.14 to that point.
The Eagles again kicked to the scoring end in the final quarter, and while there was an air of expectation that it could finally be their year, it was Woorinen who were first out of the blocks, with a goal to Tony Miliado 10 minutes into the final quarter giving the Tigers a seven-point lead.
It was a moment that Conlan recalls vividly, with the hopes of not just their club, but an entire community that had been starved of success, weighing heavily on their minds.
“I had this dreadful feeling that we should win and we’re bloody hopeless if we lose it from here at three-quarter time because we were kicking to the scoring end and it was expected that we would just go on with the job,” Conlan said.
“When Woorinen kicked the first goal – I was thinking oh no, we’ve blown it – but thankfully, everyone stayed calm and were so focused, we all just stuck to what we knew and kept pushing forward.”
With Ryan lifting his side off the canvas, the Eagles needed someone to respond in kind. That someone was Allen, with the centre half-back taking a number of telling marks in the frantic final quarter to help steady the ship for Lalbert. The Eagles responded soon after to bring the margin back to just one point, before Rob McCartney found space inside the Eagles’ forward 50 to mark and goal, giving his team the lead midway through the term.
The turning point, according to Conlan, was still to come, with Brett O’Meara soon sealing the win with a goal that’s still fondly remembered by all those wearing blue and gold that afternoon.
“Sam Pellegrino, who was a fantastic player, picked up the ball deep in our forward line and then proceeded to bounce his way out of our back line,” Conlan said.
“He got to about 50 metres out and Brett O’Meara managed to run him down from behind – he then went back and kicked a monster goal and that was the turning point for me.
“He was sensational that year – I got caught out a few times just being a spectator.
“When he was on, my God he was good to watch – he led straight out for the ball and, if you got in his way, watch out.”
O’Meara would seal the game with his third goal, with Lalbert going on to record an 11-point win to break their long-awaited drought. For Holt, it was a culmination of 10 years of hard work and sacrifice that he would proudly share with those who he’d help nurture along the way.
“I’d been the oldest in the team for 10 years,” he said. “Kids like Greg Allen and ‘Jobbo’ (Darren Jobling) and the O’Mearas, they came up through the thirds when I was playing, so you kind of took them under your wing and showed them the way.
“So to see them go through their journey and get to where they did was just absolutely wonderful.
“The journey for me was really just about being the old dog in the team and looking after the kids I suppose – it meant a lot to me to win a premiership with those kids.
“After the game, you’ve never seen so many smiling faces, because it had been a long time between drinks as far as success out there.
“The people who I’d been involved with over those 10 years, to see them with smiles on their faces and with tears in their eyes, it was just unbelievable.
“Historically, it’s still the same names out there now – like the McGregors, the O’Mearas, the Allens – they were a very community-oriented club then and they still are now.
“It was wonderful to share that experience with them.”
For Conlan, there was one emotion on hearing the final siren that outweighed all the others. Although the joy of finally playing in a premiership-winning side – let alone coaching one – was obvious, their Eagles leader still couldn’t help but be overcome with it.
“It was just complete relief, nothing but relief for me,” Conlan said.
“I’d never played in a premiership before, so from my perspective there was a monkey on my back too.
“It was really interesting that it wasn’t until the Sunday that we really celebrated. Don’t get me wrong, we still had a great night on the Saturday, but I think there was a lot of pent-up emotion that the drought had been broken and the anxiety around the losses over the previous years that it wasn’t until the following night that everyone truly relaxed and enjoyed themselves.
“It’s a reminder of how good premierships are and that they bind people together forever, especially in sides where there was a significant effort and a real sense of achievement.
“Even after all this time, and even though we don’t see each other very often, everyone still very much appreciates each other and enjoys each other’s company – we’ve set up a group chat now after our reunion earlier this year and we’re all determined that we aren’t going to wait another ten years until we get together again.”
Allen went on to win the VCFL Medal as best on ground in the grand final – a deserving achievement for one of the greatest footballers to ever pull on the blue and gold jumper. While he certainly shared Conlan’s overriding feeling of relief at the final siren, it was also an overwhelming mix of elation for the born-and-bred Lalbert local.
“We’d been thereabouts for a few years prior and us local boys had had a taste of it, but hadn’t brought home the silverware – so I think relief was the initial emotion,” Allen said.
“I’m not sure what people who would have viewed the game thought of it as a spectacle, but from a playing point of view, it was a terrific game to play in. And I can say that now because we won, but it was such a tightly fought game and it was just really enjoyable.
“I think any grand final where it’s a point the difference at three-quarter time, you know you’re going to be in for a close one, that’s for sure.
“I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of a few premiership-winning teams and I think as you get older, they get even more special, to be honest.
“Which is why I’d love our current crop of boys (the Mallee Eagles) to experience that.
“We’ve had a couple of goes at it, but Woorinen were just too good in those couple of years (2018 and 2019) but I’d love for them to experience that feeling as well – but it just makes you realise how hard they are to win.”
“As the years go on, and it’s been a long time since our last one (1996). You just want the same for them – and of course with Harry (Allen, Greg’s son) playing, well I’d love for him to be a premiership player for the club as well – but they are just so damn hard to win.”
While Woorinen would rue their inaccuracy in front of goal – they kicked 7.18.60 that day – they wouldn’t have to wait long to taste success, with the Tigers getting back to the big dance the following season, and going one better with a 33-point victory over Swan Hill.
