While Melbourne forward Tom McDonald is a well-known Edenhope boy, the other is more surprising: Bulldogs' premiership coach Luke Beveridge.

The Beveridge's link to the Wimmera began more than 80 years ago, a year before World War II started.

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After reading the club's history book, Horsham Demons' life member Norm Griffin said that the Demons' 1938 premiership win holds the key to the decades-long link.

Sitting dead-centre of the Horsham team photo is a handsome fellow with an air of leadership about him.

The man's name is Jack Beveridge - a four-time premiership player with Collingwood, who also happens to be Luke's grandfather.

Jack, aged 31 at the time and fresh off playing in Tasmania, was the captain-coach of the Horsham Demons in their 1938 premiership-winning year.

Below the photo, an article written by Roy Withell details the famous 1938 grand final win against Stawell at Dimboola in extraordinary depth.

The article's title reads, "Drama marks 1938 premiership win - coach unconscious after knock," indicating that the game didn't quite go to plan for Horsham's marquee player.

According to the recount, after being heavily influential in the match's early stages, Jack took a heavy knock in the second quarter that saw him collapse and carried from the field.

The side managed to rally without their courageous captain and "felt they owed it to their injured coach".

In the end, Horsham prevailed 75-37 but weren't helped by inaccurate kicking, which saw them record an extraordinary eight goals, 27 behinds.

According to the article, Beverage took days to recover from the knock that saw him miss his team's triumph.

"A pall of anxiety dampened the victory," one paragraph reads.

"But quiet-spoken, modest Jack regained strength to share the postmortems and victory toasts.

"It was a personal triumph for his systemised football. But just like a true blue, Jack gave kudos to the players.

"Beveridge will live long in the annals of Horsham's football history."

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Jack had quite the footballing resume before he came to Horsham. He played 148 games for Collingwood between 1926 and 1934 and was a part of their 1927, 1928, 1929 and 1930 premierships, under legendary coach Jock McHale and alongside star teammates Gordon and Syd Coventry.

He finished seventh in the 1933 Brownlow and was inducted into the Collingwood Football Club Hall of Fame in 2010.

You may wonder how a four-time VFL premiership winner came to ply his trade in Horsham at such a relatively young age.

Well, according to an article in Melbourne's Argus in December 1937, Horsham offered the Collingwood champion an offer he couldn't refuse - eight pounds a week and a "position in Business".

Another article from the Wimmera Mail-times confirmed Beveridge accepted the offer, although it claimed that Beveridge initially wanted nine pounds a week.

Although, we're not quite sure how long Jack resided in Horsham for, another Wimmera Mail-Times article confirmed that the Collingwood legend was coaching Coleraine in the Western District League in 1950.

Jack's son John went onto become a revered recruiter at St Kilda, before Luke born in 1970 and raised near Melbourne, went onto play 118 AFL games and coach the Bulldogs to the 2016 premiership.

If the Bulldogs ultimately get up on Saturday night and give Luke his second premiership as coach, it surely will warm the hearts of a few Wimmera football fans to know that a descendant of one of their legends continues to shine on the greatest stage.

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