With the likes of Kristan Height, Rhys Archard, Scott McGlone and Chris Casey among the senior regulars, the selection committee was also discussing the addition of a 15-year old junior wonderkid for a baptism of fire against a high-flying Demons outfit.
With a break in TAC Cup duties, the door was open for Ollie Wines to don the #50 Bottle Green Jumper — the first time at senior level for the club.
Brett Henderson was Echuca’s coach at the time and remembers Wines’ “stand-out” debut well.
“He had a break from playing Pioneers and we had a really strong side in 2011,” Henderson said.
“Obviously (the committee) had a discussion about playing him and I clearly remember the discussion getting around to the fact that we thought ‘hey, this kid is probably going to get drafted’.”
Their predictions came true and then some.
Echuca piled on six goals to none in the first-quarter onslaught at Vic Park and never looked back from there.
Wines booted three goals and was a beast out of the midfield in a performance that would typify his style at AFL level.
“We won that game, and Ollie destroyed them out of the middle,” Henderson said.
“After seeing that — because I hadn’t really seen him play — I thought this kid is going to be a really top-line footballer.
“I don’t think much has changed. Ollie was see ball, get ball — he certainly wasn’t intimidated playing against men.
“It was just an amazing performance.”
Henderson said not much had changed since Wines’ senior debut.
“His hardness and his want to put himself into the contest quickly gained the respect of everyone at Echuca,” he said.
“I think he might have played three or four games that year including a final or two, and he was really good in all those games.
“I thought he’d get drafted, there was no doubt about that — he was going to go pretty high in the draft.
“After seeing that performance, because the Goulburn Valley was such a strong competition, there was no doubt in my mind that he was going to go on to have a very good AFL career.”
Wines went on to play six games in 2011, including every final before the Murray Bombers fell to Mooroopna in that season’s preliminary final.
He played a further two games for Echuca in 2012 before he was drafted with pick seven by the Port Adelaide Football Club and crossed over to Alberton.
The rest, as they say, is history.
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