Until the last day of last year's Goulburn Valley league season, Benalla seemed on track to break their four-decade premiership drought in senior football.
The Saints won each of their home and away matches, then defeated the Shepparton Swans by 12 points in the qualifying final and Kyabram by 55 points in the second semi-final.
Despite a few injury dramas, including the loss of star import Ryan Colbert to a shoulder problem, they were red-hot favourites to defeat the Swans in the grand final. However, the big game, which was played at Shepparton's Deakin Reserve, turned into a nightmare for Benalla and their army of supporters.
The Saints kicked 5.15, fell an agonising three points short, and had to watch on as the Swans celebrated their first senior flag since 1970.
"It was just an unfortunate day for us," said Benalla president Bruce Biggs. "It was very windy, blowing straight across the ground. It was the same for both teams, but it seemed to turn us into an average side."
Last year's loss is still raw for everyone involved, particularly the players. "There are a few scars," Biggs said. "It did knock their psyche around a little bit."
Over the summer, Biggs and the club's highly regarded senior coach, Luke Morgan, rallied the players to come back fitter and stronger this season.
The Saints also strengthened their squad by regaining two talented local lads, Sam Martyn and Farren Priest. Martyn came home after a successful stint with VFL club Werribee, while Priest returned from Murray league club Echuca United, where he had played in a premiership in 2013.
Although Priest is still fighting his way back from a knee reconstruction, Martyn has been among the Saints' better performers, and he was voted the GVFL's best player in last weekend's interleague loss to the Geelong FL.
Nevertheless, Benalla's start to their 2015 campaign has not quite gone to plan. The Saints were 3-1 after four rounds, but in recent weeks they have suffered defeats at the hands of Kyabram and Rochester and slipped to sixth on the ladder.
Not that the president is overly concerned by the form fluctuations. "We've probably been missing eight of our top 10 players," Biggs said. "We've had a number overseas, who are all now back, and we've had a number of injuries.
"We've got a lot of players to come back who will make a huge difference to our side. There's no panic from our end. We're probably not that disappointed to have lost a couple of games, to be quite frank. So don't worry about us. We'll be right back in the mix in a very short time-frame."
But Benalla have lost emerging star Jake Pallpratt for the rest of the season after he suffered a serious knee injury in the dying minutes of the interleague match. "It's really disappointing," Biggs said. "But that's footy."
On Sunday afternoon, the Saints are aiming to kick-start their charge towards another finals appearance when they host eighth-placed Shepparton United at the Benalla Showgrounds.
But should they make the finals, as expected, Morgan's men will have plenty to prove. Not only did Benalla become one of just three country Victorian clubs to lose a grand final last year after entering the game undefeated, they also crashed out of the premiership race in straight sets in 2013.
Still, the finals losses haven't taken all the gloss off the club's impressive turnaround since Morgan, a local schoolteacher, was appointed coach after Benalla finished the 2012 season on the bottom of the ladder.
In fact, Biggs and his many helpers remain very proud that the climb back to respectability has been largely fuelled by talent emerging from Benalla's innovative junior competition.
The best of those players, like Greater Western Sydney draftee Caleb Marchbank and his Giants teammate Tom Downie, have only briefly played for the Saints before being snapped up by AFL clubs.
But a big group of lads who didn't quite make the big league, or have returned to Benalla after stints in the AFL (former Fremantle player Josh Mellington and ex-Collingwood rookie Lachie Smith fall into that category), now forms the core of Morgan's side.
Whether the group can defy recent history and win the Saints a long-awaited flag remains to be seen. But Biggs is confident the young lads have what it takes.
"They're an amazing bunch of kids," he said. "They're laconic country boys, most of them. Not much fazes them. If we're good enough to play finals, we'll have a huge impact."
BENALLA FOOTBALL-NETBALL CLUB
* Benalla won their most recent senior flag in 1973 when they were a member of the Albury-based Ovens and Murray league. The club was then known as the Demons.
* Benalla has a population of just over 9000. It is the home town of Brisbane Lions captain Tom Rockliff.
By Adam McNicol