Laharum is celebrating its 100th year of history on the weekend of June 24.
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While 1923 marks Laharum's entry into the local football league of the time, the club existed for some time before that.
The football team had an biannual game against Halls Gap that footballers would travel through the Grampians on horseback, before Mt Victory road was built, to get to.
In the early years, the ground a 100-acre paddock, often the footballers first job when arriving on game day was to herd any sheep away, careful not to step in anything left behind.
The only evidence of the ground was the four goal posts at either end and a plough furrow that marked the boundary line.
The first changing facilities existed across the gravel road in a paddock of the MacInnes family.
These structures consisted of bush poles in the ground with hessian bags draped around and with a few sheets of iron on top to keep out the rain.
In its 100 years, the club has gone into recess twice between the 1920's and 1940's but has been a consistent fixture in the Wimmera for the 78 years since 1945.
Two years later, Laharum would join the league that would become the Horsham and District Football Netball League.
And, in 1938, Laharum would lift the premiership cup.
Read also: Laharum to celebrate 100 years of community
The side's strongest period on the park was in the late 50s and early 60s, the side won five flags in seven years.
It was also during this period that the club adopted the Melbourne Demons colours and moniker.
In the late 1960's, the Laharum women started netball teams, the Demons first netball game was played on an old tennis court, around half a kilometre from the football oval.
The club's netballers have not yet found the success its footballers had in the 50's and 60's, with 2019 being the only A grade netball premiership in the Demons trophy cabinet.
With later football premierships in 1987, '95, 2013 and 2015, the Laharum Demons are now the second most successful club in the HDFNL, with a total of 10 flags.
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John Hall
John is a news and sports journalist for the Wimmera Mail-Times, Stawell Times-News and Ararat Advertiser. He is a former apprentice mechanic who earned his bachelors degree in journalism from Macleay College in Sydney.
John is a news and sports journalist for the Wimmera Mail-Times, Stawell Times-News and Ararat Advertiser. He is a former apprentice mechanic who earned his bachelors degree in journalism from Macleay College in Sydney.
