The Blues made the finals four times in the period with a couple of wooden spoons and two second last finishes thrown into the mix.

They went from finishing last to being win away from a grand final in 2017.

Premiership-winning co-coach Adam Pearce believes the work that went into that season kick started the club's revival and paved the way for their eventual title success.

"We knew we had a few good juniors coming through and knew were going to be a bit more competitive but just needed some other players back who had moved away," Pearce said.

"The first year I came back under (Jarrad) Teka they bought a lot of players and that took us from being last to playing finals for the first time in six years and it showed everyone we could do it. The next year me and Deano took over, used our juniors and won more games than we lost and built on top of that."

With Pearce and Dean Bristow coming into the coaching role more juniors started to return.

Zac Masters came home before going on to win the Weissel Medal in 2018 before Jed Pearce and Lachlan Bristow joined their brothers at the club for what would be their premiership season.

Club culture was the big thing Bristow and Pearce wanted to change when they combined in the coaching role in 2018.

Growing up in the club's great period, where they won three titles in four years, it was the big difference Bristow felt when he returned to the club in 2016.

"One thing I definitely noticed was the lack of respect for the jumper," Bristow said.

"I'll never forget it.

"There was a time there after a reserve grade game and it was just getting thrown about to see who wants a first grade jumper. There were blokes there who pretty well turned their nose up and didn't want a bar of playing first grade.

"When I was coming through as a junior it was all I wanted to do. I spent my first couple of years in reserve grade and all I wanted was a first grade jumper.

"That was the biggest point. I wanted to get people inspired to play first grade again within the club, that the jersey actually meant something and when you got selected to play first grade for Tumut that it was an achievement, something that should be highly looked upon not something that was thrown about and a curse really as that is what it felt like."

However it took time to get things right.

Especially after further disappointment during the 2016 season, which was supposed to be the first of three under Luke Srama, failed to deliver on so much hype.

"Tumut had had a few lean years leading up to 2016 and recruited pretty hard with a couple players from abroad and I came back and signed on that year thinking it was going to be the resurgence of Tumut that year," Bristow said.

"I left at the end of 2010 when the club was in its prime so to come back that year it really opened my eyes up and I was really shocked to see the vast difference in the culture within the club and throughout the whole grades.

"It opened my eyes up that year and my main point was really wanted to turn around.

"I had a few ideas, and knew it wasn't going to be easy but there first person I spoke to was Adam, I wanted to get Adam home and in 2017 we managed to get a couple of local boys in Adam, myself and Ben (Roddy) mixed with a bit of experience with a few juniors coming through was the start of the resurgence then but those years made us realise the culture needed to be fix and we needed to heavily rely on our local boys."

The new coaches knew they didn't have as a strong of a side in 2018 but Bristow and Pearce worked hard on building better relationships at the club off the field as well.

It helped the side go on to premiership success a year later.

"Everyone had their own groups and there wasn't much interaction between anyone or anything like that," Bristow said.

"I wanted to get everyone close mates off the field as it goes a long way on the field.

"If you can click off the field you go out there and you want to play for your mates."

While so much of their success has been credited to stacking the side full of local juniors getting the balance right was crucial.

Building off a large recruitment drive in 2017, Pearce thought they got mix better last season.

"It's a catch 22 as you don't know what you are going to get (with recruits)," he said.

"At that stage is was something the club had to do to try and change the direction they were going in.

"It helped out and the next year we only had a couple of bought players, relied on our juniors while last year we brought more of our juniors up."

While the majority of the team were local juniors, Bristow believes Tom Warner made a massive impact as well.

The Cootamundra junior came to the club, alongside brother Ben, after being named best in the Canberra Raiders Cup.

Bristow didn't want to underestimate his impact both on and off the field.

"Tommy Warner was instrumental," he said. "With a young playing group we had there wasn't a great deal of voices within the team.

"I felt like I got stck of the sound of my own voice sometimes but Tommy came in and he was great egging everyone on.

"His motivation, his ethic to everything and the way he applied himself was great."

Pearce thought former Blues president Dan Roddy was instrumental in getting him and a number of other local juniors back into the club.

However after Roddy isn't as convinced after being at the helm during some of the Blues darkest times, including the sacking of coach Arana Taumata midway through the 2015 season.

"We put a lot of energy into it and it didn't work out," Roddy said.

"The crew that I assembled didn't see it but the new crew that came in with a change of focus and a new roster.

"It's a credit to them for turning the place around."

Tom Arragon took over the presidency from Roddy, with Brian Black on board for their premiership success.

Bristow is thrilled with the support given by the committee.

"Tommy (Arragon) came on board at the end of 2016 and realised the position we were in, realised the young boys were probably a year, two or three away from being where we needed to be and went out there and actively recruited," he said.

"We bought up pretty heavy to get us back on the map.

"From that point on and when Tommy pushed hard for Adam and I to take over he pretty well left everything to us.

"Both the committees we've been under anything we asked for they jumped at and did it for us."

Tumut lost five times in 2019.

The first was a close defeat to Southcity at Twickenham in round four, but it showed they were a match for the top teams.

Successive losses to Gundagai and Brothers at the midway raised some questions but they responded to set up a clash with the Tigers for the minor premiership in the last round of the season.

The Blues hadn't downed their nearest rivals in nine years and it definitely wasn't to be at Anzac Park when they were thrashed 34-6.

Another tight loss to Southcity in the first week of the finals followed but Pearce thought it what the young side needed.

"I think we were primed for the grand final," he said.

"The last five weeks we'd played the top teams and we were up for it."

The run included their dramatic preliminary final win over the Tigers to end a 19-game losing streak after Ben Roddy scored four tries to help overturn a 14-point deficit.

"We were letting them bully us a bit and spoke about how we weren't going to let them do that and instead give it to them a bit more," Pearce said.

Success breeds success and the Blues felt the impact heading into the pre-season.

Pearce thought he was the fittest he'd been in preparation for their title defence, which was supposed to start up against Kangaroos at Twickenham on Sunday.

For the first time since 2016 the club was going to have a full complement of teams after only fielding three of the five last season.

It's all come to a grinding halt, but Bristow hopes all the momentum won't be lost when the coronavirus crisis is over.

"It is amazing what a bit of success does," he said.

"It has everyone talking about football and we definitely had the best numbers at pre-season training since I've been home.

"We had 50 or 60 down there in the first week right down to under 16s.

"It's got a lot of kids who want to play for Tumut and it's great to see. It's just a shame it has come to a stop for the time being."