Tongala has won only five senior footy flags since the end of the Second World War, the most recent back in 1984.

As a result, the club known as "Tonny" holds all of its premiership players close to its heart.

"We try and celebrate them whenever we can, because they are pretty scarce," Tongala president Wayne Cowley said.

Three of those premiership players, Bob Dawson, Bruce Lambert and Jim Carmichael, are particularly special.

The trio, all aged over 90, are the club's oldest flag winners, having been part of the team that defeated nearby arch-rival Kyabram by 28 points in the 1949 Goulburn Valley League grand final.

Next Saturday Dawson, Lambert and Carmichael will be back in the spotlight when they gather for a three-man reunion as part of the Blues' home game against Moama.

"We want to make sure we give these blokes plenty of acknowledgement while we've got the chance," Tongala historian John Bentley said.

Dawson, who played three VFL games for St Kilda before World War II and won the Bendigo league best and fairest while playing for Elmore in 1946, is regarded as one of the greatest players to have pulled on the boots for Tongala.

A tough and skilful wingman and rover, he won Tongala's best and fairest in the premiership year of 1949, sharing the honour with captain-coach Dave Newman, who had previously played in the VFL with Collingwood and Melbourne.

Dawson went one better in 1950. He again won the club award, but also took home the Goulburn Valley League best and fairest.

"Playing in the country and in Melbourne was much the same in terms of standard," the 94-year-old told St Kilda's website last year. "We just used to get the ball and kick it as far as we could."

Dawson later played a lead role in establishing the GVFL's thirds competition and coached Tongala's juniors for almost two decades. "I was a strict coach," he said. "It was a case of go home if you're not interested."

Lambert and Carmichael were also very talented players. The former was a half-back flanker who, according to Bentley, played "with plenty of dash". He won the club's best and fairest in 1957 and worked locally as a stock agent for 46 years.

Carmichael was a wingman who had such a burst of speed that he once ran in the Stawell Gift.

Dawson, Lambert and Carmichael will be honoured in a number of ways next Saturday, including being driven on a lap of honour around the oval before the main game.

And they will be lauded by a community that is revelling in its footy club's long-awaited return to prominence.

Tongala endured very tough times during the 1990s and early 2000s, before it departed the Goulburn Valley league and moved to the lower-standard Murray league.

As recently as last year the Blues won only three senior games. But an off-season recruiting drive, and the addition of fitness a coach (Kyabram-based gym owner Russell Jarrett), has produced an almighty turnaround.

Six rounds into the Murray League season, Tongala's seniors and reserves are both undefeated and sitting proudly atop the ladder.

"I've been asking a few of the old blokes, 'When was the last time the Tonny ones and twos were undefeated after six rounds?' None of them can remember," Cowley said.

"The club's success has got the whole bloody town buzzing. We've had a big following each week, and sales at the canteen are going through the roof. We've even had to order more membership cards, which has never happened before."

Today's senior footy side has a strong connection to Tongala's past success. Its coach, Dave Newman, is the grandson of the 1949 premiership coach.

Newman's brother Paul, who established a reputation as one of the best players in regional Victoria during a decade-long stint with Kyabram, is also part of the Blues' line-up this season.

Both Newman boys will be interested onlookers when their late grandfather's three surviving teammates from the '49 team return to Tonny next weekend.

And the club's hierarchy is hoping that the presence of Dawson, Lambert and Carmichael will spur the current crop of footballers to do everything they can to help Tongala break its premiership drought.

"Hopefully they do inspire the guys and we can keep the year rolling," Cowley said. "We need to keep a bit of a lid on things, because we're only six games into the season, but things are going along nicely."

Tongala Football-Netball Club

* Tongala's population is around 1900

* Among the biggest employers in the town is a factory owned by Nestle that produces dairy products