The opening rounds of a footy season are often bathed in hope. The weather is good, the players are fit, the possibilities are ripe.

But by the end of the season much of that hope has turned to mud.

This photo shows two Willaston players pondering what might have been after losing comprehensively to Nuriootpa in a final in the 1990s. Photo courtesy of The Barracker.

The photo is the final image of a 2003 book, Bush Legends, South Australian Country Footy Stories by Anthony Madigan and Michael Madigan.

The cover photo is the 1904 Tatiara Combined Football Team, courtesy of Colin Wiese, Mundulla Football Club.