Cover Photo: Britney McGinty/Outright Creative Solutions

Tallon Smith

There’s been multiple years in recess, heartbreaking losses and even a name change, but the journey was all worth it on Sunday afternoon when the Albury Muddogs secured their first men’s Goulburn Murray Premiership with a 26-24 victory over the Border Bears.

After opening up a 20-6 half time lead at the Glenrowan Recreation Reserve on Sunday, the Muddogs held off a fast-finishing Bears side to claim the crown in their first decider since losing to Wodonga Storm in their inaugural season of 2017.

Muddogs co-coach Beau Smith said the result brought with it “euphoria” for all involved, after the club fought so hard to re-form its men’s side this season.

“This means so much, we’ve got a lot of blokes who have put a lot of blood, sweat and tears, broken bones, broken ligaments into this,” he said.

“It’s not just about the men’s team this year, it’s been in the works for a long time, we’ve had seven years of men’s footy for the Muddogs, and this is our first year winning the comp after 10 years.

“Even today, we had a lot of blokes who turned up [with] a couple of niggles, but put it all in.”

After a physical opening, Harrison Newton opened the scoring for the Muddogs eight minutes into the contest, only for Elijah Williams to reply two minutes later to put the Bears in front 6-4.

That seemed to spark the Muddogs, with Dom Marzano crossing to reclaim the lead, before winger Couper Smith added a quick-fire double to give the Albury side a 20-6 advantage at the break.

Marzano then crossed for his second on the other side of the interval to extend the gap to 26-6.

That was when the Bears awoke from their hibernation, with four tries in 20 minutes to Lachlan Bishop, Tyrone Glass, Mason Charles and Williams reducing the margin to two and making for a nervous final five minutes for the Muddogs.

However, in a fitting climax to a season dominated by epic battles between the two Albury-Wodonga clubs, the Muddogs continued to turn up and hold on for a famous victory and the club’s first men’s title.

With two tries each, Couper Smith and Marzano each played a massive role in establishing what ultimately was a match-winning lead.

However, despite Marzano being a well-known tryscorer, Muddogs co-coach Izaea Goodhue said he was both surprised and impressed with Smith’s breakout game and leadership in the victory.

“Both of them excelled this weekend, Coup came out with an energy that we haven’t seen all year,” he said.

“He’s scored one all year, and he’s just come out as a leader.

“Obviously Dom’s Dom, [he] can score four tries in a game and you’re not surprised.

“It’s great to have Dom back [from] an ACL injury, to lead the boys from the front and to give us that momentum.”

After having such a large lead, before watching it be whittled down to two points in the space of 20 minutes, the finish proved to be a lot closer than the Muddogs faithful probably would have liked.

Co-coach Smith said there were plenty of nerves, but the side learned from its mistakes, including throwing two intercepts, to hold on under pressure in the finish.

“There were nerves obviously, a few of us were worrying about it, but at the end of the day, they scored two through intercepts, and we were able to arrange ourselves so that didn’t happen again,” he said.

“[In] the last 10 or 15 minutes, our defence really showed up, so it was fantastic for us as a team to do that.”

Having fallen to the Bears 22-16 just two weeks ago in the major semi final, the Muddogs had to go the hard way to earn a place in the grand final with a 20-14 win over Wangaratta in last weekend’s preliminary final.

That earlier finals meeting between the Muddogs and Bears tied the season ledger at two wins apiece head-to-head, meaning Sunday’s grand final was a winner-takes-all battle on that front as well.

Despite the on-field rivalry between the two clubs, Goodhue was full of praise for the way the Bears controlled the semi final, with that result also making the victory in the decider that little bit sweeter.

“Their effort was just phenomenal, the way they came out against us, especially in that first game, it put us on the back foot and we’ve got to applaud them for that,” he said of the semi final.

“They came out and they just absolutely gave it to us.

“So to come out this week and get the win, a hard earned win [is] better than an easy win, so we just thank the boys for putting up a bit of a show.”

The win is the club’s third overall title, after its women’s team won the 2018 and 2022 league tag premierships.

ALBURY MUDDOGS 26 (Domenic Marzano 2, Couper Smith 2, Harrison Newton tries; Newton 3 goals) DEFEATED BORDER BEARS 24 (Elijah Williams 2, Lachlan Bishop, Tyrone Glass, Mason Charles tries; Brody McCann-Dillon 2 goals) at Glenrowan Recreation Reserve, Sunday August 30.

Wombats complete unbeaten league tag campaign

In the women’s league tag grand final, the Wodonga Wombats completed an undefeated campaign with an 18-4 victory over the Tumbarumba Greens.

Mackenzie Winnell scored a double while Lucy Tooney and Demi Spencer also crossed for the Wombats in the four tries to one win, while Ruby McAuliffe was the lone tryscorer for Tumbarumba.

Wombats coach Sal Kaiwai said the premiership win was the cherry on top of a great season, with the team already breaking new ground by qualifying for the club’s first league tag grand final.

“I think just making it to the grand final, it meant the world to our ladies, getting there together as one was big enough, winning it was a bonus,” she said.

“The game was intense, it was back and forth, it was great.

“[There was] a lot of speed in the game, a lot of completed sets, and we were probably fortunate on our kick returns, our fullback was able to make a fair few metres up, which helped the rest of the team.”

The victory is the Wombats’ first league tag premiership and second overall title after they took out the 2022 men’s grand final with a 40-4 victory over now-defunct Bonegilla.

WODONGA 18 (Mackenzie Winnell 2, Lucy Tooney, Demi Spencer tries; Tooney goal) DEFEATED TUMBARUMBA 4 (Ruby McAuliffe try) at Glenrowan Recreation Reserve, Sunday August 30.