There was blood, sweat and tears put into Leeton-Whitton’s drought-breaking premiership and few epitomise that more than Toby Conroy, Ben Curley and Brad Boots.

Conroy, a Crows junior, has spent the past three years travelling home from Canberra, with a carload of mates, in a quest to end the Crows’ premiership drought.

He was a shattered man after last year’s grand final defeat, but finally got to achieve the dream on Saturday.

“It’s amazing. It was hard, it was tough but it’s an amazing feeling. I couldn’t be happier,” Conroy said.

”It’s a fairytale. I’ve been lucky enough that this is my third flag and to be part of this, for our club it’s been a fair while without a flag so it’s pretty special, right up there as the most special.

“For the town, community and the way everyone got behind it, just to see the faces of some of the people around that have seen the near misses and the hard times.”

Not only has Conroy been arguably the Crows’ best player over the last three years, he has been an unofficial recruiter, bringing several Canberra-based players to the club with him.

“It’s been hard work. It’s obviously a fair bit of travel but behind the scenes it’s been getting blokes on board, making a lot of phone calls, trying to get things to happen, keep on top of the boys, try to stay fit and train. It’s been well worth it though,” he said.

Curley arrived in Leeton from Tasmania seven years ago for what was supposed to be a one-year stint.

“It was only going to be a brief stint for a year then I was going to take off travelling,” he said.

“To be here seven years later. Now when you look at the faces of the blokes that got us here, I’m glad that we stuck around. They put their faith in us, they brought us over here and they’ve been a second family to all of us.

“It’s just a relief. More so for all of the people that have been here all those years. That’s what we came here for. Seven years ago we came here to try and win these blokes a premiership.

“It was only ever going to be a one-year thing for me to start with so to stay here, find a wife here and bring three, four, five of my best mates that have ended up staying here, it’s more than just a footy club now.

“I’m going to stay here regardless, regardless of whether we had of won today, regardless of if we hadn’t won a game this year.”

Curley, 30, has been an absolute star for the Crows over the seven years but played his final game on Saturday. He is proud he managed to play 100 games for the club, but said he’s finished.

Boots, a former Crows captain, returned to the club this season. A move to Wagga almost saw him join Collingullie-Glenfield Park.

“That’s awesome. It’s the best. I’ve been waiting 12 years for this. It’s just amazing,” he said.

“To be honest, Collingullie was the team I was so close to going to and in the back of my mind I knew it was going to be a Gullie Leeton final and I wouldn’t have been able to play for Gullie if we were playing against Leeton.

“It’s just awesome.”