Ovens and Murray: Refusal to admit Lavington went all the way to Supreme Court

After the Ovens and Murray Football League refused Lavington entry into the competition in 1974, the controversy took five years to be resolved. Some of the key players recall the saga.

The Ovens and Murray Football League plunged into one of its biggest controversies 50 years ago with a hard line stance to refuse entry to a club it mistakenly feared would become an instant superpower.

In February 1974, the game’s governing body, the Victorian Country Football League, expelled the O&M for denying Lavington entry into the competition.

Lavington is a suburb of Albury and in the early 1970s, Albury-Wodonga was identified as a prime candidate for the Whitlam Labor government’s bold national growth centre initiative.

Ambitions of the border towns becoming the “next Canberra” with 300,000 people were floated, but never materialised.

Lavington had so many players at the time it could field two teams in the neighbouring Hume and Tallangatta district leagues.

Pushback toward Lavington centred on a sporting club formed by local footballers and cricketers that grew into a poker machine palace, bankrolling the creation of one of the best grounds in regional Australia – and money to spend on players also had no limits.

Poker machines were still two decades away from being introduced in Victoria, meaning Lavington was cashed to the max.

Brian Chalmers, who was Lavington president when the club mounted its concerted push to join the O&M, said the repeated rejections over the next few years were “disappointing and disheartening”.

“They kept throwing up the poker machines,” he said.

“They kept saying ‘you guys will just go out and buy players’, but that was never our intention.

“When we finally got in we really struggled to win a game in our first year.

“We copped some bashings and you learn from those things.

“I used to laugh to myself when we finally did get in, suddenly North Albury and Albury got poker machines.”

Former Ovens and Murray star Bill Sammon on his farm at Bungeet. Picture: Zoe Phillips

The controversy ended up in the Victorian Supreme Court and on April 4, 1974 Justice Nelson upheld the VCFL’s directive that Lavington be admitted.

The O&M’s penalties for the Lavington snub included:

BEING booted from the country championships competition it had been dominant force in since its inception in the 1950s

DISQUALIFYING any players transferring from a VCFL affiliated body to the O & M

TERMINATING transfer fees paid to an O&M club when a player reached the VFL

any player transferring from a VCFL-affiliated league to the O&M, and

STOPPING VFL umpires officiating O&M games.

Bill Sammon played in a premiership for Benalla before joining Ovens and Murray rival Yarrawonga in 1974. Picture: Supplied

Bungeet farmer Bill Sammon had played in a premiership for his home club, Benalla, in 1973 and the following year accepted his first coaching job at rival club Yarrawonga, replacing former Essendon star Ken Fraser.

If coaching for the first time wasn’t difficult enough, Sammon and his other coaching rivals had to work even harder to retain his list.

“It was a hugely worrying time,” he said.

“Players could go to any other league because they were affiliated with the VCFL and we weren’t.

“I certainly wasn’t against Lavington coming in and maintained it was only going to benefit the O&M.”

The O&M turned to an unlikely opponent for its annual interleague fix during the Lavington saga with Sammon also coach.

The VFA was clearly the second best league in the state behind the VFL and had developed cult-like status for its Sunday fixtures televised into Melbourne homes each winter.

A deal was struck to play the first match between the O&M and VFA at Wangaratta in 1975 and the O&M caused a major boilover, winning 24.23 (167) to 17.9 (111).

Rutherglen’s Vin Doolan and fellow rover, Benalla’s Chris Elliott, booted five goals each.

Former Fitzroy player Mike Andrews, Andrew Scott, Ken Boundy and Sammon were also among the best players.

Port Melbourne legend Fred Cook kicked five goals against O&M in 1976.

Stung by defeat, VFA turned the tables at North Albury a year later, 19.11 (125) to 17.14 (116), with Port Melbourne legend Fred Cook kicking five goals and Geelong West’s Joe Radojevic booting four goals in the match that was also televised.

“They did come up a little bit cocky the first year,” Sammon said.

“We were written up as the worst O&M team ever picked.

“But we had some kids in the team like Neville Pollard and they were bloody good and just rose to the occasion.

“The following year they picked a top team and it was a credit we got so close.

“I still maintain the first one was the toughest game I ever played in.”

Doolan, who had returned to the O&M to play alongside his two brothers, Terry and Steve at Rutherglen, said the 1975 win was personally satisfying after a career at North Melbourne was cut short due to injury at the age of 21.

“The VFA was tough footy, but it wasn’t free-flowing like we were playing,” he said.

“They brought a pretty strong side up thinking they were going to cream the O&M.

“O&M was very strong back then and it didn’t turn out that way.”

But the main off-field game of Lavington being denied entry into the O&M remained unresolved in 1976.

Lavington, Mansfield and Beechworth all made applications to join the league and all were rejected.

Ultimately, the breakthrough Lavington had sought materialised in 1978.

Corowa and Rutherglen agreed to a merger and Lavington became the 10th club the following year.

Fears Lavington would be an instant premiership contender proved unfounded.

Lavington won only two games in its debut season, and six the following year before making finals for the first time in 1981.

Deep-seated angst rivals had about Lavington’s obvious riches spilt over the following year, when it made the grand final and their Albury opponents entered the ground through a banner that read: “We don’t need pokies to win today’s jackpot.”

Albury won the 1982 “jackpot” before Lavington turned the tables the following year to claim the first of five senior flags to date.

Former Essendon player Ken Roberts led Lavington to victory as coach, his fourth season in the job.

Perceived financial advantages that pokies provided clubs on the NSW side of the Murray River ended in 1991, when Labor Premier Joan Kirner legalised their use in Victoria.

The building that once housed Lavington’s “one-armed bandits” has been demolished, but the ground remains one of the finest facilities of its type in regional Australia.