The Warriors, who last made the Warrnambool and District senior footy grand final in 2011, tumbled out of the top five in 2012, finishing in ninth spot with just four wins.

The following season saw an even worse result, with a bottom-of-the-ladder finish in a winless 2013.

From the disappointment of that season, the Once Were Warriors coterie group was formed to help the team climb back up the ladder.

“Basically it was a bit of a battle cry from Denis Finn to get the club back on track,” Once Were Warriors member Simon Dawson said.

“We’d probably got through the season and been pretty well flogged most weeks and were heading in the wrong way as a club.

“We needed to increase our budget to compete with the big boys.”

The group aimed to help the club financially to increase its football department spending and also launched a big recruiting campaign.

A key aim was to lure back former Warriors who had drifted to other clubs.

Dawson said the club knew it had a lot of talented youth at its disposal, but needed to add more experience into the mix to help.

The turnaround was immediate, with the Warriors returning to finals in 2014, making it to the semi-finals the next two seasons, before advancing as far as the grand final this year, going undefeated until the decider.