Zac Masters won't be lost to Group Nine after all.
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Tumut's premiership defence has been buoyed by the return of the barnstorming front rower.
The former Weissel Medal winner had linked with Queensland Cup side Easts Tigers, but after a month in Brisbane the 22-year-old wanted to return home.
"I was up there for a bit over a month and the footy and that was good, but I didn't have any work sorted until after the Christmas break when we went back to school so I had a lot of spare time and it just drove me nuts," Masters said.
"It's happened to me before and the more spare time I have the more I think about home and decided for now it wasn't really worth it for me.
"I'd rather be at home and be happy around friends and family, focus on those things, rather then slogging it out being not happy."
Masters saw the move as a chance to play higher level football, but in the end decided it wasn't worth it.
Now his focus is on helping Tumut go back-to-back.
"Footy isn't everything at the end of the day," Masters said. "It has done a fair bit for me, but after the success of last year when I did decide to leave I thought it would be easy as we've won and grand final and would be able to do it again.
"But it was just so enjoyable and I would love to be able to do that again one day.
"Whether it is this year or not we will have to wait and see.
"I've got great mates here still playing like Dean and Lachie Bristow and Adam Pearce who probably aren't going to play a whole lot longer and it was hard to move away from that."
Blues co-coach Dean Bristow is thrilled to have Masters back on board.
After an off-season of uncertainty it's a big boost for the club as they prepare to return to training next week.
"It's great to have Zac back," Bristow said.
"I think we had the best two front rowers in the competition and to have one of them signed and back on board I don't think you can say what it does for us as a team."
Masters has been a Country under 23s representative for the past two seasons and his return could be a big boost for Riverina's Country Championship campaign.
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