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In the past eight seasons Redan has won five senior premierships, in the process leading a football revival in Ballarat, after the local competition had been dominated by cashed-up interlopers from Melton, Bacchus Marsh and Sunbury.

''If I knew what the magic formula was, we'd be right forever,'' Madden joked last Saturday. ''I'd bottle it and never give it to anyone.''

Yet what makes this an extraordinary tale of triumph, is the fact that in the 1990s the century-old club was crippled by debt and almost went out of business.

Redan's senior team didn't win a game between 1995 and '98. On most weekends it was beaten by at least 100 points, and on one particularly grim afternoon it failed to kick a goal against Sunbury while conceding more than 50.

''We weren't buried, but we were bloody near-dead,'' former player and long-time supporter, Fred Carpenter, recounted.

The revival began mid-way through the 1998 season, a short time after the Lions had reached their lowest point, when they were forced to forfeit a match against Darley because they could not find enough players.

With the club on the verge of folding, a crisis meeting was held and as a result the Redan Past Players and Officials Association was formed. Its members began a fund-raising drive that enabled the Lions to keep operating.

In 1999, Redan broke its winless run when it beat Daylesford, a victory that produced scenes more reminiscent of grand final day. Another breakthrough came a couple of months later, when former North Ballarat player Brett Quinlan decided to take on the role as senior coach. Quinlan admits the decision had many of his friends questioning his mental well-being. ''I''d finished playing at 26 due to injuries and I liked thinking about the game, so I wanted to coach,'' he recalled. ''The challenge was appealing. Coming from an environment at North Ballarat, where we had a lot of success without seeming to work that hard, Redan was the opposite. It was viewed by other clubs with contempt. But I thought that if I wanted to challenge myself as a coach I should have a go at it.''

Quinlan's arrival was significant because a couple of years earlier North Ballarat had pulled out of the local league and joined the VFL. This meant a lot of the Roosters' former players - those not up to VFL standard - needed to join another grassroots club. Quinlan enticed many of them to sign up with Redan.

However, that didn't mean the new coach was able to turn the Lions around overnight.

''There were some tough times early on,'' Quinlan said. ''One night early in my first pre-season we only had four or five players. It was pretty grim. In those days I did wonder at times whether I'd done the right thing.''

In 2000, Quinlan blooded a number of youngsters, many of whom had come through the North Ballarat juniors. One of them, Ash Barker, is now a five-time premiership player. Another, Ryan Knowles, has played in four.

Redan began its golden run in 2002 when it defeated Sunbury in the grand final, which was played before a huge crowd at Ballarat's picturesque Eastern Oval.

From there, the Lions haven't looked back. Quinlan guided them to a second flag in 2003, before he stepped aside and was replaced by Kieran Murrihy, another former North Ballarat star.

Murrihy helped keep Redan at the top, leading the Lions to premierships in 2006 and '07. In the first of those grand finals, they beat a highly-fancied East Point line-up that had sat atop the ladder for the entire season.

Among the 2006 team was Brendan Peace, a then-uni student who grew up in the tiny town of Katunga, 45 kilometres north of Shepparton.

In 2007 and '08, Peace tried his luck in the VFL. A dashing midfielder, he was struck down by injuries and played mostly in the reserves, before the Lions asked him to return as senior coach. He was only 23 when he accepted the job.

Backed by a number of experienced assistants, Peace last year steered Redan into another finals series. The Lions were narrowly beaten by East Point in their semi-final, but when the teams met again in the grand final, Redan booted the first seven goals and that was that.

Now an English and PE teacher at the prestigious Ballarat and Clarendon College, Peace was at the helm again last Saturday, when the Lions began their 2010 campaign by thrashing East Point once more.

Confirming Redan's current-day reputation for success and stability, 16 members of last season's premiership team ran out against the Kangaroos.

And the Lions will be even stronger when they unfurl their flag at City Oval next Saturday. That's because midfielder Jarrod Edwards, who has won four consecutive BFL best-and-fairest awards, will return after serving a one-game suspension stemming from the grand final.

Edwards is another former North Ballarat player who found his way to Redan.

''The misconception is that we're loaded,'' Madden explained. ''We struggle like any other country footy club to pay the bills. But we've focused on attracting a good bunch of people. We've set out to create a place that players and their families want to be around. 'Jezza' [Edwards] could write his own cheque anywhere else. Instead, he plays here for the right reasons.''

While the alliance with the Roosters (who have re-entered the Ballarat league as North City) certainly kick-started Redan's renaissance, these days the Lions are surviving on their own.

Counting the kids who attend the popular Auskick clinics, Madden estimates the Redan junior and senior clubs now have around 350 registered players between them. After a golden decade, that suggests the coming years should be just as bright.

''The club has almost disappeared half-a-dozen times through its various stages,'' Madden said. ''But I think because it got so close in the '90s, it makes what's happened in the last 10 years that bit more special. We're conscious that you're never too far away from struggling, so we don't take it for granted.''

By Adam McNicol

Article first appeared The Sunday Age, April 18th, 2010