Weekly Times | BENALLA will be praying its four-decade wait for a premiership ends on Sunday with a win against Kyabram in the Goulburn Valley league grand final.
The Saints earned another chance to end their dry spell after its 62-point hiding of Rochester in last Sunday’s preliminary final.
Benalla went undefeated last season until Shepparton Swans’ three-point win over the Saints on grand final day.
“It would be great to win on Sunday, but we know about the disappointment of losing a grand final,” Benalla playing-coach Luke Morgan said.
Benalla’s last flag success was 43 years ago in the Ovens and Murray league.
The club fielded 17 players from last season’s losing grand final team in the win against Rochester.
Morrish Medal winner Farran Priest snagged six goals at the weekend before being benched in the third term with what appeared to be a hamstring injury, but Morgan said it was “no more than a cramp.”
Kyabram won the flag in 2013, but first-year playing-coach Justin Sherman — who played 138 games for Brisbane and the Western Bulldogs — said he did not believe past experience gave them an edge on the success-deprived Saints.