For the best part of two decades, playing Maryborough at Princes Park was one of the most feared assignments in Bendigo footy.
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While Maryborough was not always a top-three team from its introduction to Bendigo footy in 1992, the Pies were talented and tough and they played the tight confines of their home ground remarkably well.
The Maryborough teams of the late 1990s were outstanding football teams.
Players of the quality of Matt Aston, Jamie Bond, Brendan Tranter and Geoff MacIlwain stand up in any era as champions of Bendigo football.
At the risk of sounding like one of those old blokes who carries on about how good the old days were, the Maryborough premiership teams of 1998 and 1999 would have made some high-achieving BFNL teams of modern times look decidedly average.
For an opposition club, walking away from Princes Park with a victory felt like they'd secured eight points, not four.
Unfortunately in recent times, it became a case of defeat Maryborough by more than 100 points or lose ground to the rest of the competition.
The Pies aren't competitive in senior football and they struggle to field a reserve-grade football team.
TROUBLED TIMES AT PIE PARK
So how does a proud club like Maryborough go from league power to the verge of leaving the BFNL?
Kelvin Noonan has been involved with Maryborough FNC's junior and senior clubs since the club moved from the Ballarat league to the Bendigo league in 1992.
Noonan, who has had multiple stints as senior club president, said several factors combined to make Maryborough's existence in the Bendigo league tough.
The overriding reason was the high density of football/netball clubs in the Maryborough district.
Simply, there are not enough players to cater for all clubs.
Prior to last year's merger of Maryborough Castlemaine District Football Netball League clubs Royal Park and Rovers, there were 12 clubs within a 40km radius of Maryborough.
"The fact there are so many clubs does have an impact on Maryborough and Castlemaine,'' Noonan said.
"One of the other reasons, in my opinion, is there's not enough kids playing football.
"There's some statistics that came out recently that showed the participation rate around here (Maryborough) was pretty ordinary, which reflects the socio-economic issues we have here.
"Jobs are hard to find, we don't have the tradesmen or the blue collar workers that we used to have in the district.
"A lot of people tend to forget that the population of Bendigo is more than 140,000 now, but the population of Maryborough is still 7500. It was 7500 when I was playing footy for Maryborough back in the 1970s.
"The demographics of Maryborough show it's an older town now and we haven't grown. Bendigo continues to grow and the clubs in Bendigo continue to get stronger.
"Unfortunately, it looks like Maryborough's position is not going to get any better."
RETENTION AND RECRUITMENT BATTLES
Producing talented footballers hasn't been a problem for Maryborough's junior program - retaining the players at senior level has.
The option of playing at a lesser standard in a district league, sometimes for more money, and invariably in a winning environment has attracted Maryborough players to district clubs.
Noonan explained that it wasn't just district clubs that have swooped on talented Maryborough-based players.
"I went to Ballarat on Saturday and watched two Ballarat league games and I counted eight players from Maryborough and district that were playing in senior footy in Ballarat,'' Noonan said.
"You take those eight players and you put them in the Maryborough side and we'd be far more competitive.
"I still say we have the capacity to have a competitive side in Bendigo, but we can't manage to get some of those better players to play for us."
Noonan said finances were not an issue for Maryborough.
"When I finished up last year the club was financially better off than we've ever been,'' he said.
Noonan said no stone had been unturned by a band of loyal volunteers to ensure the club remained in the major league in Bendigo.
"In September, October and November last year we interviewed quite a number of players and they were all receptive to us, but at the end of the day they decided not to come to us,'' Noonan said.
"You just knew they didn't want to come to Maryborough because the club had been struggling like we were.
"I thought it would have been a great challenge for some people, but they didn't think that way.
"Through the last few years we seemed to spend as much time trying to convince our own players to stay as we did trying to recruit new players to the club."
After 32 years the Magpies are destined to depart Bendigo football and netball.
It's a move that saddens Noonan, but at the same time he understands why the band-aid needed to be pulled off.
"If going down to a district league is what is required to keep the club going then that's what needs to happen,'' Noonan said.
"We need to make sure a presence of the Maryborough Football Netball Club continues in some fashion."
