In contrast to the atrocious weather, the 1999 Horsham District league grand final was a marvelous day for the Harrow-Balmoral Football Netball Club.
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A monstrous amount of rain in the build-up drowned Horsham City Oval and contributed to one of the lowest-scoring football grand finals in the league's history.
Trailing by five points in the dying stages, Harrow-Balmoral spearhead Ross Andrews proved to have the answer, as he lived out every footballer's dream by slotting the winning goal with less than two minutes remaining on the clock.
The Southern Roos held on to defeat Kalkee by the smallest of margins - 6.10 (46) to 6.9 (45).
Harrow-Balmoral's A Grade netball side also achieved the ultimate success and in remarkably similar circumstances.
The rain ceased in the afternoon, allowing netball to go ahead and for Harrow-Balmoral to defeat Kalkee by the same margin. The scoreline on the netball court also read: 46-45.
Harrow-Balmoral player Richard Brown said it was an incredible coincidence.
"To both win by a point, against the same opposition ... it was one of those things that was meant to be," Brown said. "For the A Grade girls and us to bring it home together... there were a lot of celebrations that went on for a good week afterward, I can tell you that."
Kalkee and Harrow-Balmoral also faced off in the reserves football and B Grade netball grand finals - the first time two clubs played each other in four senior finals. Kalkee claimed the reserves premiership while Harrow-Balmoral won the B Grade and under-17 netball flags.
Kalkee footballer Guy Smith - who was named his team's best on the day - said he remembered the "horrendous" conditions.
"It was one of the wettest days I ever played in, I reckon," Smith said.
"It didn't rain much during the game, but City Oval at the time was just heavy ... it is honestly hard to describe. It was like ankle deep.
"It was back in the day where the ball would get so heavy, you couldn't control a pass 20 metres."
On a difficult day for scoring, the Southern Roos found themselves in trouble and nine points down late in the last quarter.
The conditions contributed to some inaccurate goal-kicking, as they booted four consecutive behinds before Ross Andrews plucked a mark inside the forward 50.
Andrews, who kicked more than 100 goals in his one and only season with Harrow-Balmoral, said he was determined to make a difference.
"It's one of those things I say to everybody I coach - you have to want the ball to come to you, want to be the person that makes a difference," Andrews said.
"I remember thinking, 'Just kick the ball down to me and I'll kick the goal and win us the game'."
Playing-coach Jamie Templeton did just that, knocking Kalkee playing-coach Scott Batchelor off the ball and roosting it forward to Andrews with just two minutes left on the clock.
"I humbly talk about it as my Steve Bradbury moment," Templeton said.
"Four guys in front of me were running toward the ball and they all overran it."
Andrews went back and slotted the goal from 40 metres out and close to the boundary, on a day when kicking a goal from the top of the goal square was difficult enough.
"Earlier during the third quarter, I missed one from about 12 metres out at the top of the square. It only just snuck in for a point," Andrews said.
"It's one of those things - that last goal gets more difficult and further out every time I tell the story.
"In reality, it wasn't the hardest kick in the world."
The Southern Roos managed to hold on from there.
Peculiarly, in weather that would seemingly suit smaller players more than bigger, lumbering bodies, Harrow-Balmoral ruckman Richard Brown was judged best on ground.
Brown said he relished the conditions.
"I had played in the South-West District league in the mud and slush all my life," Brown said. "It suited a lot of our players that came from that league. The conditions didn't daunt us.
"It is one of those days I'll never forget - I remember we were all in a pack at the end and I didn't even hear the siren. Next thing all the players were hugging me and jumping all over me. It was just an amazing feeling."
Among the best for the premiers were classy midfielder Adrian Talay, key forward Scott Hose, vice-captain Tim Leeming and defender Steve Wood.
The senior football premiership was Harrow-Balmoral's first since the merger between Douglas-Harrow-Miga Lake and Balmoral in 1997.
In the netball, it was Sue Anson who scored the winning goal after coach Nano Melican found her with a pass. It was their second A Grade netball flag after the premiership in their inaugural year in 1997.
"That day was a classic example of all the good work put in with the merge," Templeton said.
"Each town and area has its own background and story, but you could see it all come together that day."
For Kalkee, it was a heart-wrenching loss that typified their decade of senior football, as they made four grand finals in the 1990s without winning a flag. The heartbreak was offset the following year, as they defeated Rupanyup to claim the first premiership of the new millennium.
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