‘We lost to Myrtleford twice during that ‘05 Ovens and Murray season, by 20 points in the opening round and by 90 points - they absolutely smashed us - in the return game at Lavington.

At the start of the year our ruckman "Doc" Doherty was living in Coffs Harbour and didn't even factor into our plans. I'd visited him during the Christmas break and found that he was doing a bit of running.

‘We got word that he was moving back to Albury with work (as general manager of Star FM) and he re-appeared around round 7 or so, playing in the twos. Our new No. 1 ruckman Chris Kelly from Ganmain-Grong Grong Matong did his knee that day and Doc was brought straight back in.

‘The Myrtleford game (round 10) was a shocker for us, but we did have nine or 10 of our best team out. I'm sure Myrtleford dismissed us as being serious premiership contenders that day, which worked in our favor.

‘We scraped into third place on percentage and lost the qualifying final to Wangaratta by 10 points before beating Wodonga in the first-semi and then Wang. in the return match, the prelim.

‘Myrtleford's centreman Brad Murray, who'd won the Morris Medal (the O and M's best and fairest) had been reported and suspended after the second-semi final which they won. He really smashed a bloke. Myrtleford appealed to the VCFL and had the decision overturned on the Wednesday before the Grand Final. They had a lot of distractions as a result of this and the town was going crazy. They were still hot favorites, especially the way they'd dealt with us in mid-year.

‘We started well, applying peak pressure and had eight scoring shots to one by quarter time (2.6 to 0.1). But they came back strongly as we expected they would. The scores were always close and with about 10 minutes to go they hit the front for the first time all match.

The crowd was going crazy, making so much noise it was deafening. They got to seven points up and Darryn McKimmie hit the post from a set shot. With three minutes to go, their coach Travis Hodgson rushed a behind and as he backed over the goal line he held the ball in the face of one of our players.

We trailed by five points.

The ball was kicked to the hillside wing and there was eight or nine stoppages in a row, the ball barely moving. With half a minute to play, Myrtleford cleared the stoppage and kicked long to 25 metres out directly in front of their goal. The ball spilled and Kade Stevens swooped and picking the ball up beautifully, started the passage of play which none us will ever forget.

I must have watched it 20 times on the video. Kade turned on his left and nailed a pass to Todd Brown at half back. There couldn't have been more than 10 or 12 seconds to go. Todd moved it on quickly to the wing where two of our players spoilt one another and big Adam Mathews, who was a 6ft. 6er swooped on the crumb, fed a handball to Corey Brown who kicked it long to Darryn (McKimmie).

We called Darryn ‘Skills' and he marked the thing in a one-on-one contest. He was only 30 or 35 metres but on a tightish 45 degree angle. Adding to the enormity of the occasion for him and us was that it was his 200th game.

The noise was incredible. Ladies were screaming. Everyone was on their feet.

Darryn went back and as he was three or four steps into his approach the siren went, not that any of us on the ground heard it. Neither did Skills. He kept moving and drove it straight through the middle.

We celebrated the goal and the on-ballers were heading back to the centre for the next bounce as in all the commotion no-one out there had heard the siren.

Then we were all engulfed by people running from the far end and realised it was over. It was awesome. It'd been some ambush.'

Final scores: Lavington 10.12 (72) def. Myrtleford 11.5 (71)

Attendance: 12,000, at Lavington Sports Club

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* Tim Sanson was Lavington's playing coach from 1998-2007 and has coached from 2008. He grew up in Daniher country, Lake Cargelligo and played about 400 bush games, including 231 at Lavi. from 1995-2007. The club also won the flag in 2001, three Sanson's again involved. A fourth brother, Mark, missed the opportunity to play in the '01 flag after being seriously injured in a car accident.

Prolific sports writer KEN PIESSE's new book FOOTBALL LEGENDS OF THE BUSH has just been published. It features home town heroes and those who came and conquered. An ‘A to Z' town by town list of every important player to play at VFL/AFL level is also included. For more, visit Ken's website www.cricketbooks.com.au

Article first appeared www.vcfl.com.au August 4 2011