History

The 1987 Wodonga Demons premiership team.

Wodonga Raiders Sports Club originates from the now-defunct Kergunyah Football Club which played in a number of minor leagues during the period from 1924 until slightly after the Second World War.

Upon reforming, the club struggled with many new, young players having no football experience and the older boys were well past their best. They soon joined the Tallangatta and District Football League where they found moderate success for a number of years, winning a hat-trick of flags in the period 1955-1957.

In 1976 the Kergunyah Football Club decided to disband, due to not having very good facilities or success at the time and with most players residing in the Wodonga area. However, a group of important people gathered at the Blazing Stump Hotel and moved to create a new club, relocate to Martin Park and change its name to Wodonga Demons Football Club.

In 1978 the club, despondent at having to pay rent and having to hand over 50 per cent of bar takings to the Wodonga Bulldogs, decided to move over to Martin Park’s No. 2 oval. The ground was lengthened to become a full-sized oval and allowed TDFL matches to be played there. The club remained on this oval for four years.

Late in 1980, the club requested that Wodonga Council look into providing the club with its own home ground and identified a 2.5-hectare parcel of vacant land in West Wodonga as a possible site. With an agreement of an eigh-year plan, foundations were laid for the club to occupy Birallee Park by 1983. However, this did not eventuate until the 1984 season. The erection of the original buildings was heavily reliant on the volunteer labour supplied by club supporters and stalwarts.

The club made its initial attempt to join the Ovens and Murray Football League in July 1983, which was rejected by the majority of clubs at a meeting in September later that year. Many more attempts were made in the following years, with Wangaratta and Wangaratta Rovers being the only clubs in favour of the Demons joining the O&M - however, a total of seven clubs needed to be convinced in order to gain approval.

Senior coach at the time, Tom Doolan, stated that he felt the O&M were giving excuses, but not reasons, why the club should not be allowed in. The Demons soon went public with their reasons on why another club from Wodonga would be great for the competition, which was the main focus on the number of junior players available to play at that level. Some Wodonga Bulldog stalwarts were of the opinion that the City of Wodonga was not big enough to support two teams in the O&M. Benalla also argued that for Wodonga Demons to be allowed in, they should be required to pay an entry fee to the League, however as this was not required when Lavington joined the O&M in 1979, why should the Demons be required to do so?

Wodonga Demons won their first senior TDFL premiership in 1987, defeating Mitta United in what was a fiery encounter.

On Monday, August 1, 1988, at the Corowa Bowling Club - the club finally obtained the required votes to become the newest member of the O&MFL. Only two clubs voted against - Myrtleford and Benalla. Club delegate at the time, Bill Mooney commented, "We have arrangements in place to form a Board of Management and will be well prepared. Our club will prove it is worthy of being part of the league."

With the League now having 11 teams in the competition, a bye was needed. This was to last for nine seasons until the Benalla club decided to leave the O&M and head to the neighbouring Goulburn Valley Football League.

Former Hawthorn player, Mark Turner, was appointed as the club's first coach at O&M level in 1989. However, after being beaten on the last kick of the day against Benalla in the clubs first O&M match, wins were very rare in the first three seasons. The club won the wooden spoon in 1989 and 1990.

One important achievement for the club was the fact that the Third Eighteen side won the premiership in the club's inaugural O&M season, putting paid to any doubt that the City of Wodonga was not big enough to support two clubs at that level. They won it again in 1994 and were runners-up in 1991 (to Wodonga Bulldogs), 1997 and 2010.

The senior team began to make inroads success wise in 1993, finishing just outside the final five. In the 1995 season, we made our first finals series, getting through to the preliminary final - losing to Albury by 23 points. The following season we finished fifth.

Darren Harris addressing the players.

A major coup was made at the end of 1996 when the club appointed former Wodonga and West Perth player, Darren Harris, to the coaching role. Darren's father Herb was one of the founding members of the club when they became the Wodonga Demons.

Success began to slowly unfold - with some clever and successful recruiting, the club made the Grand Final in 1997 only to be narrowly beaten by Albury by seven points.

The following season was all about revenge - and MATEship …and we succeeded. The club won the premiership, defeating Lavington by 64 points in its 10th year in the competition.

Many people had a vision and a dream for this club - that was their dream.

After the Grand Final Darren Harris coached on for one more year with the side being knocked out in the preliminary final.

Simon Bone then became the next playing coach and after the home and away rounds was able to take Raiders to 2nd in 2000, 6th in 2001 and back to 2nd in 2002, without taking the next step.

In 2003 Christin Macri took over and the Raiders finished No. 1 for the first time to go out in straight sets and finish third. In what was a sign of things to come in the next few years with players moving on there was a general decline in our ladder position culminating in a wooden spoon in 2006.

Ben Davies.

With the appointment of Corey Lambert as Coach in 2009 the fortunes again began to rise … with Corey came recruits of the calibre Patrick Rose, David Stretton, Eddie Prato and Ben Davies. These four players were massive gets for the Raiders side with Davies taking out the best and fairest and Rose kicking 101 goals and winning the Doug Strang medal.

However, after finishing fifth at the end of the season in 2012 and a change of coach there was a mass exodus from the club with all of the Melbourne-based players, and 14 other players, leaving the club at the end of 2012.

In 2013, the Raiders topped off their young list with Montmorency Magpies players Dean Limbach, Dean Giles, David Attard and Michael Steven under new coach, Ken Stephenson.

After 2013, we added further recruits in Queanbeyan players Ben Klemke and Steven Jolliffe for the next two seasons. Even with these recruits, the loss of players meant that the side could only finish 10th in 2013 and 9th in 2014.

A highlight for 2014 was Dean Limbach, who finished second in the league goal kicking in near bottom of the ladder side, with a total of 68 goals. To prove just how good he was, Limbach kicked 17 goals in the final two rounds of the year to finish three goals behind North Albury spearhead and 2013 Doug Strang Medallist, Adam Prior.

Unfortunately, the end of 2014 saw the departure of the four Montmorency players.

In 2015, the club scored a coaching coup in signing Daryn Cresswell to take over the helm. This led to further signings and the rapid development of the local talent which saw players such as Todd Grayson and the Rouse twins join the club. The following season Brodie Filo, Daniel Bowles and Jarrod Hodgkin jumped on board, The continued development of the local players in Jydon, Matt and Jaxon Neagle, Jack Di Mizio, Brad St John, Shane Munro, Connor Newman and the brothers Alex and Connor Daly amongst many, saw an immediate rise in fortunes finishing third, fifth and fourth and finally second at the end of the home and away rounds in 2018.

ABOVE: Jaxon (left) and Jydon Neagle.

However, the dream was still not meant to be, as a loss in the dying minutes from a tight angle in the qualifying final seemed to take the wind out of the sails which led to a defeat in the Preliminary the next week. Out in straight sets again.

The winning of the Morris Medal by Brodie Filo being only the second time the award had gone to a Raider, was a year highlight.

In 2019, the fruition of the succession planning occurred with Jarrod Hodgkin taking over the reins but also saw the departure of the Neagle boys to Adelaide to try their luck in the SANFL.

The Raiders finished fifth again in 2019,  just losing to Myrtleford in the elimination final after a solid year. We again were successful in the Morris Medal with coach Jarrod capping off a great season by winning the award.

In 2020, there was great excitement around the club with the recruitment of Tim Haines, Jye Schultz and Tim Hallinan. We were looking good in the preseason for it all to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, as can be seen around the club, with the function centre and canteen renovation and the building of the second netball court and new lights to bring the oval up to night game standard, it was not wasted.

Thus, we begun 2021 again with a list of changes with the moving on of Jye Schultz and Tim Hallinan without playing a game, the return of Jydon Neagle, Steve Joliffe and Scotty Meyer and the signing of Isaac Muller, Charlie Hamilton and Jacob Smith.

This has seen us perform strongly and despite two lockdowns sit fifth, only four points and percentage behind third placed Wangaratta Rovers.

We completed season 2021 and will finish in the top five for the ninth time in the past 11 years, which is a good solid record.

In 2022, there was another mass exodus of players and low numbers had a huge impact on playing stocks for reserve grade games. With the help of many past players, we managed to field a side in the reserves for all bar two games. The seniors narrowly avoided the wooden spoon by defeating North Albury at Bunton Park by one point late in the season.

Today, as we all know , it's an ongoing process to continue to grow, be successful and be an important and respected part of the community. Wodonga Raiders Sports Club is in good hands.