NOVEMBER 1981 was the month of the greatest upheaval in Australian football history in the Riverina.

Desperately worried about player numbers, Ganmain and Grong Grong-Matong agreed to merge to secure their future.

"Amalgamation is the sensible approach," said Ganmain Football Club president Barrie Logan at the time.

"We might survive a few more years but we are fighting a losing battle against the bigger centres and we would very slowly go down."

Ian Ferguson was president of Grong Grong-Matong and the 73 Magpies' members who met on the night of Monday November 9 voted overwhelmingly to join their rivals from just down the road.

Six days later, the Victorian Country Football League Investigations Committee, chaired by the late John Lauritz, reshaped the league boundaries, ending the fabled South Western District Football League which had been around since 1913.

The Daily Advertiser's back page after the VCFL Investigations Committee rejigged local football leagues in 1981.

The decision also ended, although only for three years as it turned out, the Farrer League, formed in 1957. The Central Riverina League, instituted in 1949, was abolished and never returned.

Four clubs involved in the shakeup - Boree Creek, Junee-Kapooka, Royal Australian Air Force and South Wagga-Tolland Dons - now no longer exist whereas other mergers, far less successful than GGGM's, have taken place.

Ganmain, with its famous maroon with a white V, won an unrivalled 14 SWDFL flags from 17 grand final appearances.

But by the end of '81 the club had not played finals in four seasons including the ignominy of the wooden spoon in 1978, just two years after football journeyman Greg Leech led Ganmain to September glory at Narrandera Sportsground ... by far the best ground in country football.

From troubled times and the difficult conversations that always arise when clubs combine, emerged a football powerhouse ... one on the verge of yet another undefeated Riverina Football League season in 2024.

GGGM is now the envy of country football and netball clubs.

It boasts an attractive home venue which is being regularly upgraded.

It is, as it has always been, well administered with driven, passionate volunteers presently headed by three-time senior GGGM premiership player Jason Hamblin, in his fifth year as president.

It has a steady stream of players with exciting potential coming up through the ranks and also attracts outside talent as strong clubs have a habit of doing.

Good footballers want to play for successful clubs.

But back to November '81 ...

Not only was Ganmain and Grong Grong-Matong in strife, so too was Ariah Park-Mirrool. The club with the unique brown jumper with its green trim and yellow APM lettering, had to rearrange its annual general meeting when it failed to attract a quorum the first time.

How The Daily Advertiser reported the unification of two of the Riverina's longest established clubs.

Fast forward three years and GGGM and APM were pitted against one another to determine the third Riverina Football League premiership.

The first two RFL deciders were, in essence, confirmation of the restructure with former leading Farrer League club East Wagga-Kooringal and an SWDFL force, the region's oldest club Coolamon Rovers, meeting in both.

The inaugural RFL grand final was won by the EWK Hawks by just five points with Coolamon - the Grasshoppers in the green with a white V - prevailing in a replay in 1983 after the original grand final was drawn.

Grand final day in 1984 began with Leeton downing the Tom Carroll-coached GGGM in the Under 19s by a point, despite the scoreboard showing a draw as the full-time siren blasted.

GGGM reserves, led by the late Wayne Norton, then smashed Wagga Tigers by 104 points.

What unfolded in the 1984 seniors' decider is still being talked about 40 years on ... it truly was a game for the ages.

The GGGM Lions, wearing old Fitzroy's red and blue jersey with yellow monogram, had Ray "Rocky" O'Connor, 29, as captain-coach. He had been recruited from Coolamon where he had coached from 1979-81.

Hans Heystraten, 30, was in charge of APM. According to the grand final programme, he had: "Played in every State in Australia."

It was fitting these two clubs should determine the competition in what had been a signature season.

APM had finished minor premier with 16 wins from 18 home-and-away outings, its only losses to GGGM. But the Bombers had a few close tussles including scraping home twice by a point.

The Lions finished second on the ladder with a 15-3 win-loss record; Narrandera (captain-coached by Peter "Flash" Belford) and Coolamon (Russell Campbell) rounding out the final four in a 10-team league.

Narrandera trounced Coolamon by 83 points in the first semi-final and the following day GGGM, with four goals apiece by dual Jim Quinn Memorial Medallist Wayne "Nugget" Evans and Mick Walsh, went straight into the grand final courtesy of a thumping 41-point second semi-final victory against APM.

The Bombers gained another crack at the Lions with a nail-biting preliminary final win by a solitary point against Narrandera and the scene was set for an enthralling grand final.

The game started in a typical 1980s country football fashion.

So the story goes, GGGM centre halfback Brendan Carroll, who had the tall task of minding rising star Chris Daniher, complained to the umpires he had been clipped in the head before the first bounce.

One umpire reportedly retorted: "It's a grand final. Let's get it going."

To which Carroll responded ... "But it was Ariah Park's runner!"

Rugged Noel Fairman, "Buster" by nickname and by nature, may or may not have been in close proximity.

As it turned out, 1984 would be GGGM's year ... the Lions' premiership underscoring the vision of Ferguson and Logan and the anxious yet bold pro-merger members less than three years earlier.

One straight kick separated the two teams at full-time and it was centre half forward Mick Walsh's snapshot goal, the last score of the day, which made the tense GGGM throng, typically occupying the north-western side of the oval, erupt with anticipated joy.

The record crowd, which paid a record $15,300 at the gate, would have only 15 seconds to wait.

Umpire John Russo, who went on to umpire 222 VFL-AFL games including the 1986 and 1991 grand finals, bounced the ball for the re-start and soon enough the siren sounded to herald a new era in Riverina football.

Facts and figures from the 1984 RFL grand final.

Final scores were valiant GGGM 17.12 (114) to luckless APM's 16.12 (108).

Amidst wild celebrations no-one was more popular than Walsh, the unassuming 22-year-old Grong Grong farmer and shearer.

The major was his 50 th and by far his most important for the year. He would ultimately boot a record 498 goals for GGGM, retiring in 1997 after a stellar career spanning 20 seasons and 359 senior SWDFL-RFL games for GGM Magpies and GGGM ... but none more memorable than the one on the afternoon of Sunday, September 23, 1984.

Stars of GGGM's 1984 RFL grand final, post-match (foreground from left) Phil Hatty, John Steele, Rick O'Reilly and Mick Walsh. Picture courtesy of Howard Holgate

"What a game ... what a win," Walsh reminisced last week.

"It was the best feeling."

Walsh loves his football and still volunteers at the club, acting as ground manager on game days when he enjoys watching sons Ben (GGGM's first grade captain) and Josh play football and daughters Emily and Jess on the netball court.

He remains a modest man and does not dwell too much on personal glories but, rather, credits his old mate, big Laurie "Bear" Gibson, for giving him the space which enabled him to slot the matchwinner in that epic '84 grand final.

The "brain's trust" of Logan, secretary, the late Mick Howe, and treasurer Ken Warran, who has also since passed away, had coaxed Gibson out of retirement after the season had already started.

It was a wise move.

The lanky 194-centimetre, 93-kilogram frame of Gibson proved such an asset as well as an inspiration to the Lion cubs, including Mark and Vin Carroll, Denis Howe, Dennis Walsh and Marty O'Donnell, all in their early 20s.

Stylish Andrew Corbett, only 19, also belied his youthfulness, showing great maturity to kick three vital grand final goals.

Later, Corbett and centreman Mark Fraser, another prime mover in that club-defining decider, were the only GGGM players permitted to try torpedo punts or, as Fraser described them "mongrel punts", during games.

A player had attempted a "torp" during the first half of a match at Ganmain and it skewed badly sideways, turning over possession and costing the team dearly, leaving Fraser suitably unimpressed.

How The Daily Advertiser covered the 1984 RFL grand final.

Fraser, who succeeded O'Connor as captain-coach, told his side at half-time he would drag from the ground the next player who tried to kick that way, unless it was Corbett or himself.

"And before you ask me, 'why is this so?'," Fraser bellowed ... "It's because Drew can actually do them and do them well ... and I'm the coach!"

Michael Winter, a schoolboy at Trinity Senior High, also kicked three grand final goals for the Lions and Phil Hatty, 18, also contributed.

Gibson, 33, led the way in 1984 and his cagey experience and gamesmanship provided the premiership-clinching moment, according to Mick Walsh.

Gibson put it down to intuition.

"I knew there wasn't much time left," he recalled.

Walsh takes up the story that has been told and re-told so often whenever the '84 flag is discussed: "I was about to take a ruck 20 yards from goal. Laurie Gibson, who always played a kick behind the game, when they had the ball-up came up, pushed me out of the road and over next to the umpire and then he took the ruck. My man (Ross McKenzie) was sitting on the goal line because he thought I was taking the ruck so then when I got pushed over there I was left on my own. So then Brian Hood bounced the ball and the ball just went straight to me. I was a little bit free but Laurie made sure of it, shepherding out two blokes (Heystraten and Graeme Haddrill) and my opponent was on the goal-line and couldn't quite reach the ball. It was the first time ever Laurie came into the forward line to ruck ... just a bit of know-how."

The entire '84 team are still hale and hearty and 15 of them gathered at a wonderful 40 th anniversary reunion in July, the day the Lions were home to Narrandera.

Oddly enough, Mark "Curl" Carroll, who had a terrific '84 grand final with 22 possessions on a wing, interrupted his Narrandera coaching duties to jump in the 2024 reunion team photograph taken to mark the occasion!

It was fitting that a parade of the stars, taken in vehicles on a circuit of the ground to loud applause, had O'Connor and Walsh seated together.

GGGM captain-coach Ray O'Connor. Picture courtesy of Howard Holgate

O'Connor, like Walsh, is humble about his individual efforts in the grand final, preferring instead to focus on the team's achievements.

But O'Connor did have a blinder, gathering 16 kicks, a mark, four hand passes and four goals from seven shots in a best-on-ground performance as a rover.

"Personally, I thought David Carroll was the best player," O'Connor said.

David Carroll, ruck roving, had 31 touches and used every one of them to GGGM's advantage.

O'Connor recalled how his side was down by as much as 35 points, 18 minutes into the second quarter.

The Lions trailed at every break, including by seven points at the last change, but kicking 5.2 to 3.1 in the final term, with two goals by the wily O'Connor and another he set up for dashing speedster Kevin Williams, put them in front at the eight-minute mark.

Scores were level at 108-all as the game entered time-on.

Enter Walsh and his heroics and the rest, as they say, is history.

Narrandera Sportsground has a habit of conjuring up fairytale grand final finishes.

Old-timers tell of Tom "Turkey" Carroll's last-kick goal to give Ganmain a two-point win against Griffith in 1964. Then there was 17-year-old will-o'-the-wisp Tony Turner's last-second goal on the run for Narrandera as the 1974 final quarter went beyond 30 minutes, to deny Coolamon by a point.

Of course, one of the most amazing escapes was executed when the brilliant Warren Sykes landed nine second-half goals as unbeaten Turvey Park came from 11 goals down, seven minutes into the third stanza, to miraculously win by two points against Wagga Tigers in 1987.

There have been other exciting grand final endings and there will no doubt be more in the future but as far as GGGM supporters are concerned, Walsh's stunner is as good as it gets.

After all, it gave the joint venture its first pennant and it was only ever going to be onwards and upwards from that point.

Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong has been the Riverina's best-performed club since 1982, annexing a dozen titles from 15 grand finals - a remarkable strike rate.

For three small communities which in November 1981 were fearful for their footballing future, that is a fantastic outcome.

Michael McCormack is the Federal Member for Riverina and former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia. He covered the Riverina Football League for The Daily Advertiser from 1984-88.

Late goal seals flag for Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong and a new era