WINDING back the clock, Tumut is chasing signatures of former premiership stars Matthew Free and Greg Crampton to re-establish its Group Nine dominance.
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After taking out the 2010 title, Free and Crampton along with a swag of other stars left the Blues for greener pastures, but have returned to Tumut ready to play.
The Blues have been decimated by the mass exodus of players over the past two years, tumbling to 10th place on the Group Nine ladder with just two wins at the end of this season.
However, recruitment officer Daniel Roddy believes getting top local talent back on the books is the key to reigniting the Blues' hopes.
"At this stage we're in negotiation with a couple of players that went away at the end of 2010, Matthew Free and Pecka (Greg Crampton)," he told The Daily Advertiser yesterday.
"They've returned home and they're fairly experienced players.
"There's a few other handy local boys that we'd love to get back, but it's all a bit up in the air."
Thrifty ballplayers, Free and Crampton were at the peak of their game for Tumut's Group Nine premiership campaign in 2010 in the centres and at fullback.
While luring local talent back to the paddock is hot on the agenda, the search for a coach to replace Clay Campbell continues.
"The main thing is trying to source a captain-coach," Roddy said.
"Ideally we want a captain-coach with the ability to bring a couple of handy footballers with them. If we can get that, along with some of our local boys, we might be a little bit more competitive than we were this year."
Roddy said the small town club doesn't have money to splash around, but the Blues are keen to attract a quality coach with handy contacts.
The Blues are the most successful Group Nine club of the modern era, and Roddy is eager to re-establish the proud reputation next season.
"It's been hard this year, it's been a long time since we've been in that position so there's a lot of interest in it, but once you get a good group of players it's hard to lose so many of them all at once," he said.
"Financially we can't afford to keep them here, we need to breed them.
"We've got a few options up our sleeve, so hopefully in a couple of weeks we should have something."
