Campania Wallabies fall short in ODFA grand final despite cancer hero’s return
A regional football club's remarkable season ends in grand final heartbreak, but two extraordinary player stories have united an entire community.
The Campania Football Club fell just short of breaking a 62-year premiership drought on Saturday but in many ways the Wallabies still emerged as winners.
Campania lost by 25 points to arch rival the Bothwell Rabbits in the 2025 Oatlands District Football Association grand final at Oatlands – but for two of players it was an amazing effort just to get to the season decider.
The inspirational stories of players Brodie Johnstone and Sam Medhurst spurred the Wallabies to dig deep.
Campania committee member Jarrod Beven said the club rallied around Johnstone, the team’s centre half forward, after a stage three cancer diagnosis during the season jolted the club pretty hard.
“We raised $30,000 in a fundraiser for Brodie at Campania so that he could get treatment for lymphatic cancer,” he said.
Johnston had undergone surgery during the season.
“He’s had chemo treatment for four weeks straight leading up to the grand final and hasn’t played,” he said.
“He wanted to work for his spot so has trained for the last three weeks.
“He’s lost about six kilograms since he got cancer but has still got his strength.”
Another key motivation was midfielder Sam Medhurst’s 150th game after several weeks missing with a shoulder injury.
“He’s a five-time best and fairest with the club and he is arguably one of the greatest to ever pull on the bottle green and gold guernsey,” he said.
Despite the grand final loss, Campania is a team on the rise.
Unlike many country football clubs the Wallabies are thriving – reflection of the fortunes of the productive Coal River Valley.
“We’ve just had a 6m high video scoreboard built and the [Southern Midlands] council is about to spend $1.1m on changerooms,” Mr Beven said.
“We got lights here that you could play day/night cricket under.”
The club is built around a fair few local players or those with family connections in the valley.
“We try to recruit them so that the club actually means something to them rather than get a few dollars and go,” Mr Beven said.
“We’re trying to build the club so that it is more sustainable by getting community involvement. We’re trying to build towards at a women’s team and a superules team.”
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