Osborne chases more premiership glory in grand final

Osborne has no pub, no shops and its only school closed in the early 1970s. But the club with no town has premiership winning force.

Osborne has no pub, no shops and its only school closed in the early 1970s.

But the dot on the map in the southern Riverina almost an hour from Wagga and even further from Albury possesses a football team with unrivalled success in the Hume Football-Netball League from the mid-1980s.

Fifteen senior flags since 1985 have largely been won off the back of players born and bred into farming families prepared to travel thousands of kilometres each season to come back and play each week.

Asked the secret of Osborne’s success, club president Jason “Spud” Webster said: “The people. We’ve got really loyal families, a lot of them farming families.

“They love their club, they want success and strive to be the best.

“We don’t have many other things out here to distract us.

“It’s footy and netball or nothing.”

Osborne Football-Netball Club president Jason Webster, left, and his presidential predecessor Jason Gooden. Picture: David Johnston

A section of Webster’s farm wraps around the ground surrounded by healthy canola crops.

Its best player, 2005 Sydney premiership player Adam Schneider, grew up on a farm near the Osborne ground.

The club’s pre-Covid winning streak has resumed, with Osborne the first team into the first grand final since 2019 and will play Holbrook.

It has eight teams shooting for a flag in football and netball including the A grade netball team.

A grade netball coach Sally Hunter won the league best and fairest this week.

But Webster and others closely connected to the club were worried the onset of the pandemic might destroy what had been built over more than a century.

The Hume league made an early call to pull up stumps in the pandemic’s first year and Osborne players were bombarded with offers to play in neighbouring Riverina competitions prepared to navigate Covid’s mayhem.

“I had about 16 blokes ask for clearances in two to three days,” Webster said.

“We couldn’t afford to let them go because there was every chance we wouldn’t see them again.”

Osborne signed up for the AFL Riverina Championships featuring two teams from Wagga, a city with a population of more than 60,000 people.

Beating Wagga Tigers remains a source of much pride for the club.

The entrance to Osborne's home ground.

The only downside of 2022 has been a wet season preventing the club planting its own crop to keep the finances rolling in.

But another regular revenue source, cleaning up rubbish each day at the Henty Field Days, is back with the event’s return next week.

“We also crutch a lot of sheep every summer and that gets everyone involved from 85-year-old men to 15-year-old kids,” Webster said.

Joel Mackie, a seven-time Albury Tigers premiership player and former coach, is the latest in a long line of quality coaches to lead Osborne.

“Coming out here and the responsibility that comes with that has made me a better coach a second time around,” he said.

“There is a lot of travel, but I’ve got great support with some great ex players who have stuck around.

“It hasn’t made me fall back in love with footy because I’ve always loved the game, but I probably appreciate it a lot more now I’m in the twilight of my career.”

Former coach Shayne Weidemann is one who “stuck around”.

“It’s a bit like Fish Creek where I was brought up,” he said.

“It’s close knit, everyone gets in and helps out.”