Good things come in threes: Thirty years ago Kyabram Football Netball Club president John Guinan (pictured with his son Archer, who will be part of the Kyabram Under-18s team playing Mooroopna on Sunday at Rochester) played in an unbeaten Kyabram Under-16 team that dominated the Shepparton Junior Football League and won the grand final by 117 points. Scott Hearn won the best and fairest that season, Michael Glover was the premiership captain and Gary O'Neill was the coach. The year was 1993, 10 years after a Gary Lyon-inspired and Gus Underwood-coached Kyabram team won the 1983 Goulburn Valley league Under-18 title. Twenty years after that, (2003) Kyabram won another two GVL titles, followed by Under-18 and senior grand final wins in 2013. The club is hoping "good things come in threes'' as five teams embark on a premiership tilt in 2023.
1983 premiers: Kyabram’s Under-18 team was led to victory by star players Gary Lyon and Daryl Bourke. Bourke went onto play 18 VFL games with Melbourne and win two league best and fairests in the Queensland AFL competition. Lyon became an AFL Hall of Fame member with 426 goals from 226 games.
KYABRAM GVL FINALS DRAW
Saturday, September 2 (Mooroopna Recreation Reserve)
Senior football: 5.30pm, EF1 Kyabram v Mansfield
Saturday, September 2 (Benalla Showgrounds)
17-and-under netball: 10.30am, EF2 Kyabram v Echuca
15-and-under netball: 9.15am, EF2 Kyabram v Mansfield
Sunday, September 3 (Moon Oval, Rochester)
Under-18 football: 10am, EF1 Kyabram v Mooroopna
2003 premiers: Comparisons have been made between Kyabram’s Under-17s premiership team of 20 years ago and this year’s team. Both were credited with scoring 100 goals in a game, this group winning the inaugural Under-17 GVL netball grand final.
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Kyabram football and netball players and officials will be hoping the unique relationship the club has with the number three will influence a positive outcome from the 2023 Goulburn Valley Football netball League finals series, which starts this weekend.
The Bombers have won premierships in 1983, 2003 and 2013, at different levels, and in both football and netball.
The club goes into this year’s finals series with five teams, all three football teams and both under age netball teams.
It was 20 years ago that the club’s Under-17 netball team was a competition powerhouse and brought back some silverware to the Wilf Cox Community Centre.
President John Guinan will be hoping that the stars will align again and numerology will have an influence on the outcome of this year’s finals series.
Ten years ago, in 2013, the Dave Williams-led Kyabram won the senior grand final by 51 points, humbling Shepparton United by having 30 shots on goal to United’s 19.
Modern-day coach Paul Newman, who is in the final year of his coaching career with the Bombers, kicked five goals and Gold Coast Suns player Nick Holman three.
This year’s senior captain Jason Morgan and another player on the current senior list, Liam Odgen, were among the best players.
Morgan, Ogden, Hayden Gemmill, Rhys Clark and Tom Holman were all members of that team — involved in a reunion only a few weeks ago to mark the 10-year anniversary.
Reunions have been held consistently during this season, another being to honour the Bombers’ Under-18s premiership of the same year.
The side had a 33-point win, coached to the title by Paul Newman and with star forward Kyle Mueller in the team.
He and captain Jarryd Pretzel both kicked three goals in the win, while Aaron Hayes, Josh Wiffen, Jack Donnell and Sean Dillon were among the best.
Kyabram reserves lost in the semi-finals that year.
Twenty years ago, in 2003, Kyabram won the Under-18s grand final by seven points as Jason Gorman, Kevan Horder, Michael Shaw and Ryan Mitchell (three goals) starred in the game.
2013 premiers: Brad Edwards and Paul Newman coached the Kyabram Under-18s team to the 2013 premiership, the same year as Newman was a member of the winning senior team, guided to victory by GVL legend David Williams.
Kyabram’s Under-17 netball team was dubbed the dream team that same year, the team of Sharni Clark, Michelle Hill (coach), Allie Prior, Megan Weardon, Ashlee Mangan, Amy Orchard, Rhianna Hilton, Kira Vick, Claire Coulstock, Hayley Vick and Jesse Peters beating United 45-29 in the first year of the age group in GVL netball.
Forty years ago, in 1983, Gus Underwood’s Under-18s team won the grand final against United by 22 points.
Gary Lyon kicked three goals from the ruck and Daryl Bourke was best on ground in the victory.
Paul Normington, Nick Quirk, Troy McCormick and Mark McAuliffe were also stars in the win.
There was one hiccup in history, in 1993, when Kyabram lost the Under-18s grand final to Lemnos by 41 points.
Tim Hancock kicked five goals in the loss and Corey Carver two, with Ryan White, Chris Breen, John D’Angelo and Chris Lyon among the Bombers best.
The Bombers did have a connection to the GVL senior premiership that same year when former Kyabram Under-18s GVL best and fairest winner Adam Houlihan kicked the winning goal after the siren for Shepparton to beat Rochester.
