Nearly 500 Kybybolite fans watched as their team fell just short of breaking a 50 year premiership drought
A Kowree Naracoorte-Tatiara Football League footy team has fallen short in their quest to break a 50 year drought.
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Nearly 500 Kybybolite fans watched on in agony as their team fell just two goals short of its first premiership in fifty years, with a former AFL captain – and club junior – leaving the oval in despair.
Jack Trengove, who played 89 AFL games for Melbourne and Port Adelaide, did all he could for the Tigers alongside ex-Glenelg SANFL captain Andrew Bradley – as the pair returned to the southeast this season hoping to “fulfil a childhood dream” of lifting silverware with their junior club.
Trengove, a division one best & fairest winner and two-time premier with Prince Alfred OC, said this year’s grand final loss “hurt a lot”, but was beyond proud of the positive step forward the club took after finishing bottom last season.
“You think about the last couple of years and what the club’s been through – particularly finishing bottom of the ladder last year – just credit to the club, the president, coaches and everyone who helped turn it around and get us to being in a position where we’re playing off in the final day of the season,” he said.
“Not many clubs go from bottom to vying off a premiership in a competition so strong.
“It’s just really frustrating and disappointing that we couldn’t quite nail it at the end there, but sometimes that’s footy, and we’ve all been in the game long enough to know how hard it is to win premierships. We were hopeful today that we had the side to do it, but it’s a credit to Mundulla – they played the game into their hands and made it a real fight.
“It’s one of those things where I’ve always looked to come back and play A Grade footy with the club where I started at, and this year I had the opportunity to do that with a lot of old mates. Getting back connected with the community, it’s been a really exciting year.”
Trengove credited the club for their “strong junior program”, highlighting other junior stars to come through the ranks like former Fremantle forward Alex Forster and two-time Brownlow Medal winner Lachie Neale.
“They’ve been able to create players who have gone on to do incredible things in footy and in their careers,” he said. “We’ve got the junior program that really holds us in good stead, but we’d just love that senior success that unfortunately we couldn’t get today.”
The star player was unsure whether his body would be able to go around again in 2025, saying work priorities and the travel to the southeast each week was taking its toll.
“It’s tough, but I’ve absolutely loved it. I’ve loved coming down here this year – it just would’ve been so nice to finish it with a win but we’ll wait and see,” he said.
In the battle for the Tiger Cup, Mundulla led by 23 points at the start of the last quarter and managed to stem Kyby’s momentum as they kicked into a favourable final term breeze.
Thousands of cars lined the fence of Bordertown Oval, as both ends were adorned with yellow and black – with a set of supporters making themselves known as ‘the Kyby wags’.
A member of Kyby’s last premiership in 1974, and superstar forward who kicked 100 goals in a season on three separate occasions, Gary Gurney, said this year’s grand final meant a lot to the community – regardless of the final result.
“I looked up the records today and in those 50 years, Kyby has only played in one other grand final,” he said.
“It’s been disappointing for us old players because I played in five or six finals for Kyby and won four of them – the club doesn’t very often get the opportunity now.”
Tonight, the Kyby supporters and players will drive back to their clubrooms and celebrate the B Grade’s premiership win against Keith – as they say goodbye to the 2024 season and embrace another opportunity to end their torturous drought in 2025.
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