EFL 2019: Nunawading reflects on ending 62-game losing streak in the Eastern Football League
When Nunawading Football Club won its first game in four years, celebrations akin to a grand final ensued. Here’s how one of local footy’s longest losing streaks took its toll and how the club survived.
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Marty Lambe has been there for all but two of Nunawading Football Club’s beltings.
He was there for the 300-point thrashings, scoreless games, winless seasons and endured a losing streak that threatened the future of the club.
But after 62 consecutive losses, Nunawading is still celebrating Saturday’s breakthrough victory over Kilsyth.
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Lambe has played in 60 of the 62 defeats — only missing two games when he was unavailable.
SCENES AT NUNAWADING! The Lions have ended their 62-game losing streak! pic.twitter.com/Kxcc51zR6z
— Toby Prime (@T_Prime2) April 6, 2019
And this is how @NunawadingFC celebrated ending its 62-game losing streak in the @footyefl. pic.twitter.com/gSzUhucVA7
— Toby Prime (@T_Prime2) April 6, 2019
The weekend’s 32-point victory over Kilsyth was Nunawading’s first win since Round 10, 2015.
The celebrations resembled a grand final triumph rather than a Round 1 win.
Lambe captained the club during its leanest times and remained loyal when the easier option would have been to play elsewhere.
“It does get hard at times and you think, ‘Is it really worth it? Do I want to leave? Do I just want to give up footy?’ but when days like this happen, it just proves that as long as you stick it out, you get the rewards,” Lambe said.
“I got taken off with four minutes to go and I said to the coaches, ‘I’ve been here for the longest, I’m going back on’. As soon as that siren went I just burst into tears.”
Nunawading entered the season on the verge of the league’s longest losing drought, just five games short of equalling Surrey Park’s 67-game record.
But it took the Lions just one game of the 2019 season to break their duck. The reserves were also victorious, making it a winning double.
One supporter walked around the victorious rooms screaming: “undefeated!”
Lambe said he stuck it out at Nunawading to enjoy the spoils of a long-awaited victory.
“I knew if I left that they would win and I’d be like, ‘I wish I was part of it’. It was always in the back of my mind when you go through the hard times, should I just take the easy option and leave?” he said.
“You’ve seen how we were in the rooms, it was absolute mayhem and that’s why I stuck around because I knew it was going to come.
“We were rebuilding from four years ago and to get to this moment, hard work pays off.”
President Scott Cairns ranked the moment alongside the club’s sole Eastern Football League premiership in 2002.
“I shed a little tear just before the final siren,” Cairns said.
“Speaking to some of the boys that have been around the whole four years and certainly in 2016 when the club was getting beaten by 300 points, you definitely do get a little bit emotional when you see their emotion as well.
“It’s fulfilling, a little bit of relief and just very, very happy.”
Cairns praised the work of the club’s committee in keeping the club alive.
“In the past three years I’ve been an assistant coach, football manager and now president, knowing the work that has gone on behind the scenes in getting to this position makes it really special,” Cairns said.
“There is a fair bit of relief. I suppose it’s just the first step in a long journey as well … this is just the start.
“We’re not under any illusions it’s a long road back to winning a flag but in the end, that’s what we want to do.
“It started three years ago and it’s been hard work to get to where we are now, but they just keep putting the hard work in so we can continue to grow, continue to build the club and go forward to winning that next flag.”
Nunawading coach Paul Bevan praised the resilience in keeping the club alive.
“Three years ago we could have shut the doors and just let it go,” Bevan said.
“There is a lot of pride within this footy club over a long period of time.
“We’re stuck in a little hub around Blackburn, Mitcham, Doncaster, Doncaster East, Vermont, Forest Hill — we’re just a small footy club with no juniors but just keep soldiering on.
“It’s hard and I’ll keep saying it, but the resilience is just huge and the character of this footy club is just massive.”
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