Tia and Daryl Harrison after the teenager had added to the family's trophy cabinet with her first premiership victory in the 17 & Under KDL grand netball grand final.
A famous Stanhope sporting family extended its extraordinary record of grand final appearances by two on the weekend when a father and daughter combination tried to expand on four generations of glory that goes back more than 60 years.
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Seventeen-year-old Tia Harrison was co-captain of Stanhope’s 17 & Under netball team that won its Kyabram District League premiership play-off against Merrigum on Saturday and just after the final siren sounded to end that game her well known and highly decorated father was running out with the Lions reserve grade grand final team.
While Tia was celebrating a couple of hours later Daryl was calling time on another football season with a runner-up title to add to his resume.
Tia was playing in her first grand final, following in the footsteps of elder brother Wil (three grand finals), father Daryl, late grandfather Rob and great grandfather Alf.
Before taking the field for his 13th grand final Daryl Harrison (centre, with partner Alicia to his right) was a keen onlooker of the 17 & Under netball grand final.
Daryl Harrison, now 42-years-old, was back in the line-up after a week on the sidelines watching his Stanhope team pull off a mighty upset against Lancaster and complete a three week run that took it from fifth on the ladder into the weekend’s grand final.
It was Daryl’s 13th grand final appearance, but unlike his daughter he had to be content with runner-up status as the Murchison-Toolamba combination completed an unbeaten season.
His first grand finals were the back-to-back Under-18 premiership years of 1996-97 when his Stanhope team dominated the Kyabram district competition.
Still a teenager the very next year he was a member of the Rochester team that lost the Goulburn Valley League grand final, only to back up the very next year and win the title as a speedy winger with the Tigers.
Alf Harrison, who is now 95-years-old and coached Tongala to the 1961 Goulburn Valley league premiership, with fellow Blues premiership coach Des Campbell at a 2023 reunion.
Those four grand finals were part of an eight year run that Daryl was involved in grand finals every year. In 2000 he was a star in Stanhope’s senior premiership win and also coached the Stanhope Under-18 team into a grand final.
The very next year his Under-18 team was premier and champion of the KDL and he moved into a third competition, the Bendigo league, to play in a grand final with Golden Square. He returned to Stanhope in 2003 and was a member of its unbeaten team – another premier and champion title.
Stanhope's 17 & Under team overcame the odds to beat top team Merrigum in the KDL grand final at Mooroopna on Saturday - adding another notch on the premiership belt of the Harrison family.
After a 12-year gap he played in the 2015 Murray league reserves grand final with Tongala and was at Nagambie in 2018 when the team played in another grand final – his 12th.
His father, Rob, played in five grand finals between 1977 and 1991, winning the first three at Numurkah, Kyabram (reserves 1979) and Stanhope (senior Heathcote league title 1986). He was then a member of the losing Stanhope grand final team of 1989 and played in an epic losing Tongala grand final in the Goulburn Valley League in 1991.
Rob died at just 38-years-old in 1996, having been a star at every club he played at. In 1979 he had been among the best players for the senior team in its losing preliminary final team before still being eligible to play in the reserve grade grand final.
