The experiment brought NT star Cam Illet, goalkicking legend Darren Ewing and ruckman Jack Monigatti to the club, along with Nick Jamieson (Footscray, VFL), Queenslander Matthew Daniel and, more recently, Brock McLean (Melbourne/Carlton) and Ryan Nyhuis (Fremantle).
Add into the mix the arrival of O’Dwyer Medallist Coby McCarthy (Kyabram via the Bendigo Pioneers) and ruckman Kyle Fitzgerald (Kyabram) — and the Blues became ready-made premiership material, not quite overnight — but in reasonably quick time.
The Blues won three of their opening seven games by more than 100 points this year before losing three successive weeks to Cobram, Congupna and Nathalia.
A return to form, a 104-point win against Barooga, in round 11 has been followed by comfortable wins against finals aspirants Mulwala and Deniliquin Rams, along with a round-14 victory against Echuca United.
After a one-point win against fourth-ranked Moama Tongala now sits second on the ladder, one win and a rather significant amount of percentage behind ladder-leader Cobram.
It has 13 wins, one more than third-ranked Mulwala, with two weeks of home-and-away competition remaining.
The Blues face Cobram in a blockbuster match only a fortnight before the finals are due to start, on August 13.
Its other match is against Finley (10th), which they beat by 114 points in round seven.
It was only 10 years ago, in 2012, that Tongala was ranked 10th in the 13-team Murray league competition and managed just five wins for the 18-game sesaon.
Seven wins in 2013 was only good enough to finish 10th, while 11th (of 12 teams) was the best the Blues could do in 2014. That was followed by a three-win season before an out-of-the-box result saw the the Blues win 12 of 18 games to finish fifth in 2015.
That came on the back of coach Paul Newman’s brilliance in attack, no better evidenced by his seven goals in an elimination final win.
The Blues lost an semi-final final bout with Moama by just five points before spending another three seasons in the wilderness.
In 2016 the Blues had an end-of-season ranking of 10th, followed by another three-win season in 2017.
Five wins in the 15-team competition of 2018 (and 13th place) came prior to the move of Shepparton East, Tungamah and Katandra in different directions.
Eleven wins in the direction altering 2019 season saw the Blues qualify fifth and what ensued is the stuff of folklore.
In the opening week of the eight-team finals series the Blues beat Tungamah by 44 points, Cameron Illet’s best-on-ground display and five goals by Coby McCarthy setting the tone for the finals series.
The following week the Blues were seven-point winners as Illet produced back-to-back match-winning displays and Mackenzie Ryan led the way up front with four goals.
A one-point win in the preliminary final against Numurkah came after Tongala trailed at every change. The run came to an end when the Blues lost the grand final by 45 points to Nathalia.
It was Nathalia’s fifth successive grand final win, one better than the four in a row the club achieved between 2005-08.
After successive seasons of cancelled finals series, with the Blues at the peak of their powers, the question remains — will the four-year rise to the top of the ladder realise the ultimate dream and end the four decade premiership drought?
THE 2022 BLUES
Cam Illet 7 games, 6 goals
Darren Ewing 5 games, 39 goals
Jack Monigatti 4 games
Brock McLean 11 games, 4 goals
Ryan Nyhuis 6 games, 4 goals
Nick Jamieson 16 games, 3 goals
Matthew Daniel 16 games, 9 goals
