Flags through the ages: Zac Cerrrone (Under-18s 2012-13 premierships, senior title 2022), Graeme Elliott (1992), David ‘Buddha'’ Owen (1988), Corey Carver (2001), Michael Orr (2011) and Lindsay Orr (1974 Under-18s premiership). The six represent Lancaster football premierships from the 1970s through until last year. In all that time the club has only ever won back-to-back titles at senior level once — in 1980-81 under the guidance of now legendary figures Chris Salter and Kelly Hewitt.
Long before mercurial Geelong forward Gary Ablett Sr was referred to as a footballing version of God, the tiny Kyabram District League “town’’ of Lancaster had its version of the messiah.
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He may not have stood on the shoulders of opposition fullbacks or kicked 50m on either foot, but his impact on the club was as dramatic.
Chris Salter coached the 1980 Lancaster premiership team that broke an almost 50-year drought.
He spent most of his glittering football career with Kyabram as a star player in the Goulburn Valley League but was an even more admired leader.
Later in life, he took those skills into local government as he became the Shire of Kyabram Mayor and a renowned figure in maintaining Kyabram’s prominent role in the region.
Salter arrived at Lancaster and had an immediate effect.
His legacy carried into season 1981 when the club won back-to-back senior premierships (under coach Kelly Hewitt) for the only time in its 113-year history.
It is now Lancaster football folklore that the man most Wombats supporters considered the KDL equivalent of Ablett Sr (a football God) then handed the reins to another man with several physical similarities to another biblical figure — Hewitt.
The wiry Hewitt had long, flowing dark hair to go with a bushy beard forward, a fitting figure to take over from Salter after the drought-breaking grand final win.
It was the start of 40 years of grand final success, including at least one title every decade since the Salter and Hewitt era.
Lancaster football ‘God’': Chris Salter delivered Lancaster with its first premiership since the 1930s when his team beat Avenel by 25 points in the 1980 Kyabram District League grand final.
Salter hardly faded into obscurity in 1981. In fact, he had the league’s best and fairest award in his keeping with one vote card to be counted in the McNamara Medal.
He finished runner-up when Tallygaroopna coach Neville Whittaker polled maximum votes and beat Salter by a vote — he and Merrigum coach Gary McKenzie finished equal runners-up.
Lancaster finished the 1981 season fourth on the ladder with a 10-7 win/loss record and went into the grand final a major underdog against Merrigum, which had lost just one home and away match.
A year earlier, the Salter-coached Lancaster team was also the underdog, finishing the home and away season third behind a team that had also lost just one game — Avenel.
The Wombats won the title in 1988 under coach Steve Sharp, who repeated that performance in 1992.
Another Kyabram legend, in the same mould as Salter, coached Lancaster to the 2001 title — one-time GVL games record holder Tony “Rusty’’ McDonnell.
In 2011, Paul Burnett was at the helm when the Wombats won their seventh KDL senior football title.
Tom Davies then guided his team to the post-COVID premiership in 2022.
In preparation for the 2023 grand final at Mooroopna Recreation Reserve on Saturday, the Free Press found representatives of five footballing decades — Lindsay Orr (1974 Under-18s premiership team coached by legendary KDL figure Keith Whitford), David “Buddha’’ Owen (among the best players on the ground in the 1988 grand final win), Graeme Elliott (a member of the 1992 premiership), Corey Carver (a decorated player from the 2001 grand final year), Michael Orr (a member of the 2011 premiership with his brother Brad — captain of the 2023 team) and Zac Cerrone (who played in back-to-back Under-18s titles in 2011-12 with modern-day coach Tom Davies and then — 10 years later — was in the team that won the 2022 grand final).
