There's not much left of the once-thriving township of Bungaree. The tiny settlement 12 kilometres east of Ballarat surrounded by potato farms and grazing properties, has one pub, a primary school and a smattering of houses.

Yet Bungaree is home to one of the strongest football-netball clubs in central Victoria.

Last season the Demons qualified for the firsts, seconds and thirds grand finals in the Central Highlands Football League. They lost the junior game, but took home the senior and reserves premierships.

Almost a year down the track, the club is in a position nearly as strong.

When the second semi-finals take place at Learmonth on Sunday, Bungaree's reserves will take on Beaufort, while the seniors will do battle with Hepburn.

The Demons' under-18s, meanwhile, are already preparing for a preliminary final on September 6 after proving too good for Creswick in a qualifying final last weekend.

"It's a tough league," said Bungaree president Darren Rix. "If you don't work hard you will drop off, but we're going OK at the minute."

The Bungaree Football-Netball Club, which counts Danny 'Spud' Frawley among its alumni, hasn't always been a powerhouse. It went through some down times before deciding it had to change with the times.

"We didn't make the senior finals for five years at one stage, so we just had to change lots of things about the club," said Rix, a Ballarat-based businessman.

"For ever and a day we relied on our locals to be successful. We realised eight or nine years ago that those days were over.

"If we were going to compete in our league we had to start spending money. We had to pay our locals and pay our recruits and be a bit more professional. But what we didn't do was spend a heap of money in one year to win a flag. We did it the right way. It was a gradual build."

Bungaree's on-field revival was spearheaded by Greg Middleton, who was the club's senior coach between 2010 and 2014.

Middleton led the Demons to consecutive preliminary final losses in 2012 and '13, then took them all the way to the flag last year.

The 58-point victory over arch-rival Springbank (the two clubs are only five kilometres apart) broke a 23-year premiership drought in senior footy.

"It was fantastic to get the monkey off our back," Rix said. "I think we'd played in something like 10 prelims since our last flag in 1991.Then we'd gone through the patch where we weren't even making the finals.

"So it was nice to break through and win it. We felt like we'd earned it." One of Bungaree's strengths is its proximity to Ballarat, and the Demons recruit a lot of juniors, along with many of their senior and reserves players, from the burgeoning city.

The club provides transport out to Bungaree for many of the younger lads. It also uses its small-town feel as a recruiting tool.

"When we recruit a good player from the Ballarat league or a metro league, they get blown away by the crowds, the number of families around and the feel of the place," Rix said. "That's what sets us apart."

Another source of pride for the Bungaree supporters and committee members is the impressive community centre at the local recreation reserve that was completed prior to the 2013 season.

The facility, which was named after Frawley and features a large function room and spacious change rooms, was six years in the making and cost more than $2 million.

"If you've got good facilities it makes it easier when you're trying to recruit players," Rix said.

Bungaree had to recruit a number of players last summer after a third of its senior premiership team departed. The club also had to find a new coach following Middleton's decision to step down.

The Demons looked far and wide when it came to finding players, but their new coach came from within, with Heath Pyke, who was an assistant coach last year, stepping up to fill the role.

Pyke guided Bungaree to victories in his first eight games at the helm, a streak that included wins over Springbank and Gordon, which ended up finishing first and second on the ladder.

Late losses to Beaufort and Hepburn were the reason that the Demons slipped down to third by the end of the home and away season.

Nevertheless, Pyke's men went into last weekend's qualifying final against Gordon with plenty of confidence. But they started slowly and ended up losing by 25 points.

As a result, Bungaree's senior side now needs to beat Hepburn on Sunday to keep their hopes of consecutive flags alive.

"We're very much still in the mix," Rix said. "We've just got to perform on the day. Win this one and you never know what can happen."

BUNGAREE FNC

• The town of Bungaree had a population of 405 at the time of the 2011 census
• The Central Highlands league has 18 clubs and uses the same final eight system as the AFL