As the siren sounded, fans flooded the ground and players were brought to tears, in the knowledge that Pimpinio had just created history.

The Tigers' 2005 flag was the club's first seniors premiership since 1939, and their first ever in the Horsham District football league.

Things would only get better for the Pimpinio faithful as their history-making Tigers reached the same heights the following year.

Building on an undefeated season prior, Pimpinio captured the 2006 flag as well.

Trevor Baker, the club's president at the time, said the team soon became local legends.

"It was a pretty special time," he said. "We were heroes there for a couple of seasons."

The foundations for the Tigers' pair of premierships were laid just after the turn of the century.

Baker and the club's committee identified potential in a generation of younger players, earmarked as the ones who could help end one of the league's most enduring droughts.

"We set it up with some of the younger kids who were playing with us in the under-17s," Baker said.

"We nurtured them through and told them that if they stayed with us, we'd get a couple of good players and a good coach and that's what we did."

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The wheels were set in motion after a disappointing 2003 campaign saw the Tigers finish with only two wins to their name.

Gary Davidson arrived as coach for the 2004 season, quickly turning the tide for the Tigers.

"A lot of the guys, when I got there, had just turned 17 or 18," Davidson said. "The year before, the club probably did a lot of the groundwork, in being able to recruit a decent enough team."

The Tigers managed a second-place finish in 2004, before bundling out in the finals.

"We went out in straight sets, but we were able to identify areas where we needed to improve and recruit to have a good shot at it in '05," Davidson said.

Two of the first to arrive for the premiership season were Bernard and Alastair Ward, but not before a fierce stand-off with the brothers' original club, Dimboola.

The Wards wanted clearances to play with Pimpinio but were met with resistance from Dimboola management, who faced the prospect of losing 14 senior players if all clearance applications were granted.

"Considering the football club is at the heart of the Dimboola community, we have to work hard to make sure the club survives. If that means fighting for players who have come up through the juniors, who we have spent a lot of time and money on, then so be it," then Dimboola president John Saxton told the Mail-Times at the time.

After an independent tribunal heard the matter, the Ward brothers were cleared to play for Pimpinio.

"It was a huge struggle, but you ask those boys now, and it was one of the best decisions they ever made," Baker said.

Wins started flowing freely for the Tigers, and excitement began to build around what the future might hold.

"You wouldn't have expected that we were going to do what we did at the start of the season, but as it rolled along, you started hoping," Baker said.

Pimpinio suffered a setback when Davidson went down with a knee injury halfway through the season.

"It was probably near round six or seven. I had to go and have an arthroscopy for a meniscus injury," he said. "I tried to get back for the grand final, but I was coaching from the sideline for the first one."

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From the bench, Davidson witnessed an resurgent performance - fitting of the Tigers' season.

Heading into the final quarter, one point behind and staring down the barrel of an untimely first loss of the season, Pimpinio took the game on and bagged three goals in as many minutes to set up an emphatic 36-point win against Laharum.

The celebrations were cut short for onballer Paul Leslie, however, who suffered a head knock and was ferried off in an ambulance shortly after the presentations.

"He got concussed about three times that year I reckon," Baker said. "But they made sure he got his medal before he went off to the hospital."

The success of the previous year didn't make the 2006 campaign easier.

The Tigers stumbled during the regular season but found themselves in the grand final again. In a tight encounter, played in a blustering gale, Pimpinio held out to be eight-point victors against Harrow-Balmoral.

"We probably weren't the strongest team that year, but we were able to win the final," Davidson said.

"It was no more special because I was on the field for the second one. The 2005 premiership was so good because a lot of the young guys were mates and there was so much hard work that went into it.

"I think for a small town like that, it was a big deal to get some reward for the time they put into the club."

Baker said it was good to see a process come to fruition.

"The plan took about three years. We had to wait for the kids to peak. We couldn't get them in too early," he said.

"A lot of the work that went into it, for sure, goes unnoticed. People say, 'oh yeah, they won a premiership', but if they talked to those who ran the committee they'd be surprised.

"It wasn't a fluke. It was planned."

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