The Ovens and Murray Football Netball League (OMFNL or O&MFNL) is an Australian rules football and netball competition containing ten clubs based in north-eastern Victoria, the southern Riverina region of New South Wales and the Ovens and Murray area.

The best five teams then play off according to the McIntyre system, culminating in the O&MFNL Grand Final, which from 1995 to 2017 was held at the Lavington Sports Ground in the Albury suburb of Hamilton Valley.

Organised competition in the area started as the "Ovens & Murray Football Association" in 1893, with the following foundation clubs – Beechworth Wanderers, Chiltern, Eldorado, Rutherglen, Wangaratta City and Wangaratta West End,[1] with Beechworth Football Club winning premierships in 1893 and 1894 and Rutherglen winning thirteen O&MFA flags between 1895 and 1915.

[8] The competition reformed under the Ovens & Murray Football Association banner again in 1914, involving the following five teams: Albury, Border United, Howlong, Lake Rovers and Rutherglen.

In 1922, larger town clubs Benalla and Wangaratta joined the OMFA whilst Wahgunyah and Springhurst moved to the Chiltern DFL.

The Wangaratta Rovers would go on to dominate the O&M for the remainder of the 20th Century, winning fifteen premierships to date, a number only recently overhauled by Albury with their own streak of flags.

The O&MFL was allocated to North Melbourne, and thus quite a few of the better players from the O&M came to play for the Kangaroos, contributing in part to that club's rise to success in the 1970s.

The Wangaratta Rovers dominated the 1970s, playing in ten grand finals between 1970 and 1980, winning seven premierships and finishing third in 1973.

Recently, added assistance for the staging of the grand final through regional promotion and in-kind sponsorship has been provided by the Albury City Council.

[23] Footage of the brawls, which was broadcast live Prime Television, was shown across Australia and around the world, and it has been described as the OMFL's "darkest day".

Also around this time, the Wagga Tigers Football Club, which had dominated the Riverina Football League, made a bid to join the O&MFL; however, partially due to concerns from the league's southern clubs about travel times, the bid was rejected.

However, due to concerns from O&M clubs about player availability, the Kangaroos about travel time, and poor attendances compared with O&M league games, the venture was discontinued after three seasons and the Kangaroos subsequently set up an affiliation with the established VFL club Port Melbourne.

The Wangaratta Magpies exceeded this in 2022, and the club was stripped of its 2022 premiership flag, a first in country football, among other penalties.

(bold: premiership years) For Grand Final records in all grades click here Since 1972 the OMFL has used the "McIntyre system".

The Morris Medal is given for the best and fairest senior player in the O&MFL during the home and away season at a vote count held in the week preceding the grand final.

The players who received these medals were - Lance Oswald 1957, Bob Rose 1958, Jim Sandral 1964, Alby Dunn 1965, Jack O'Halloran 1975, Mike Andrews 1976, Greg O'Brien 1976 and Ken Boundy 1977.

The Reserves Leo Burke Medal is awarded for the best and fairest seconds football player in the O&MFL during the home and away season.

Leo Andrew Dean was a talented young former Wangaratta player who tragically died on Monday, 3 September 1984, at 20 years of age[61] and this award is in memory of him.

The Doug Strang Medal is given for the leading goal kicker senior player in the O&MFL during the home and away season at a vote count held in the week preceding the grand final.

"Did" Simpson Medal is given for the best on ground senior player in the O&MFL during the grand final at the post match ceremony and presentations.

Senior Football The first known representative match was in 1914 when a team from the Albury, Corowa and Howlong clubs (O&M – NSW) played against a team made of Lake Rovers, Mount Ophir and Rutherglen (O&M – Vic), with the Victorian side defeating NSW by two points on the Albury Sportsground, in the State of Origin match.

In 1998, the VAFA defeated the O&MFL at Waverley Park to win the Smokefree Victorian Challenge match, as a curtain raiser to the AFL Ansett Cup Pre season grand final, then the O&MFL turned the tables on the VAFA the following year in the same challenge match at the same venue.

[92] From 2004 to 2006 the championships were decided at a carnival round-robin competition at one venue over a single weekend, with each of the four sides playing the others in matches of two twenty-minute halves.

The O&M have gone onto win the first division of the Victorian Country Football League interleague championship fourteen times, the most recent victory being in 2009.

The Ovens & Murray Hall of Fame was established in 2005, to recognise and promote the outstanding achievements of some of the league's greatest players, dedicated administrators and club support staff and long serving media representatives.

History The netball competition's were added to the Ovens & Murray Football League from the 1993 season, with A and B. Grade.

The Toni Wilson Medal is awarded for the best and fairest A-Grade netball player in the OMFNL during the home and away season.

[170] More successful has been the Murray Bushrangers TAC Cup Under 18s side, who play their home games in Wangaratta; prior to the AFL national draft and the inception of the TAC Cup, young players in the area would usually play through the grades with their local club, with less likelihood of being scouted by the recruitment staff from AFL clubs.

Several notable examples to be drafted directly from the O&MFL include, Guy Rigoni (Myrtleford/Melbourne), Brett Kirk (North Albury/Sydney Swans) and Karl Norman.

Some of the former W&DJFL players that went onto play VFL / AFL senior football were - John Brady, Lance Oswald, Ian Rowland, Sam Kekovich, Mick Nolan, Mark Browning, Dennis Carroll, Darren Steele, Chris Naish, Steve Johnson, Alipate Carlile, Ben Reid, Sam Reid, Jack Crisp, Dominic Bedendo, Joe Richards and Darcy Wilson The following O&MFNL footballers / netballers have won the prestigious Stawell Gift.