Sometimes it's hard to capture exactly what it means to win a premiership. But the retired and respected Rob Harper goes as close as anyone.
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"It's just a privilege to be part of a premiership side," Harper says quietly.
"It's for what it means later, sharing it with your teammates. If you don't win, those things don't happen. You don't get together 10 or 20 years later for a reunion for winning a final.
"It means something. When you're 37 and it looked like you weren't going to win one in your career, and then you win two at the end... it's something to reflect on."
Harper had the fairytale finish many footballers dream of. It was such a privilege the first time, he did it twice.
STARS ALIGN
After the newly-formed Northern Jets won a memorable premiership for the Ardlethan and Ariah Park-Mirrool faithful in 2005, Harper had retired. But when he got wind that Coolamon premiership player Matt Hard was coming across to take charge of the Jets in 2007, after five years as coach of the Hoppers, he made a call.
"I'd played a bit of footy against him when I was at Temora and he was at Coolamon and I knew how good a player he was so I thought I'll come back and say I'll just play at full-forward," Harper said.
Off-season phone calls can be the stuff of nightmares for a coach. This was a good one for Hard.
"I signed on there as coach and then I got a call from Rob who didn't play the previous year and had finished up in '05 with a flag," Hard said.
"He indicated he was keen to have a run... Geez, that was probably the best phone call I got all pre-season. We were stoked, and he exceeded my expectations. He kicked 107 (in the home-and-away season), and he missed round one! That was sensational."
From that phone call on, things barely took a bad turn for a Jets side with an abundance of quality and experience. Almost too much, in fact.
"It was (a cracking grand final). What springs to mind is that we were lucky the siren went, that's for sure," Hard recalls.
"We'd only dropped the one game, to Marrar in about round two, so we obviously went in as favourites. Looking back, it was a good game of footy. It was close. And we had some unbelievable footballers in that side but we probably had eight guys over 30.
"So you get to a nice, warm day in September and you know you've got the class on your side but a nice sunny day, on a big ground... credit to Collingullie, they nearly got us. But class got us over the line in the end I think."
Down by a goal at quarter-time, the Jets led by two points at half-time and 10 points at three-quarter-time in a pulsating decider.
Brad Aiken's Collingullie-Ashmont-Kapooka then closed to within one point 20 minutes into the fourth quarter before Joel Fairman marked and goaled (his third) and the Jets steadied and held for a 15.22 (112) to 15.15 (105) victory.
ALMOST HAMSTRUNG
Twenty-two behinds from the hot favourites? That can't be good for a coach...
"My heart? It was struggling. I was starting to look for an exit strategy," Hard laughs.
"I thought, if we don't get up here I'm going to jump that fence and keep running because, from memory, I kicked about five of them. I had a stinker in front of goals but we were lucky that we kicked some.
"Joel Fairman had played a lot of seconds footy but he'd done a full pre-season, got his opportunity and he kicked about 50 goals for the year. And I think it was something like 50 goals and five or six behinds. He was very reliable in front of goals.
"It was one of those years when everyone stood up at different times and it was a year I look back on with fond memories."
Hard doesn't mention that he'd rolled the dice and played injured after pulling a hamstring in the qualifying final win against Marrar. He doesn't want to make excuses. His teammates never miss the chance to remind him of his kicking - winners are grinners, remember - but they all know he was, well, hamstrung.
"Matty Hard had a bad hammy, he was lucky to play," Harper says.
"The ball kept coming to him and he was marking it but he just kept missing. He'd have his shot and it was going for a point or out on the full because his hamstring was pulling so much.
"He was good enough to still get the ball somehow but he just couldn't kick it."
Harper (who kicked four goals) says the young Demons deserved accolades for the challenge they put up and he'll be forever grateful that the Jets prevailed.
"Looking at the side, we didn't have a Brad Aiken - he was a gun - but we probably had a more even side," he says.
"It was a good midfield and Matt Robertson, he dominated the ruck. I just knew, I was 37 and Ken Fairman - who I played lot of footy with there and at Temora - he was probably 35. So I knew it was our last chance to win a premiership together. Blokes were going to retire and hang their boots up. Matty Currie was about the same age."
WINNING CULTURE
Nine years earlier, Currie had won the Gerald Clear Medal with Ardlethan. Here he was, like Harper, retiring in his late 30s after two decades of senior football and with two flags.
"It was just a sweet victory. There was about 12 of us that were over 30, and probably two teenagers under 20," Currie says.
"You cherish your premierships... it's all bloody memories now. You wish you could still play."
Thirteen years on, it comes flooding back for Currie: of a team which could set up out of the backline through Ken Fairman and Gerard O'Brien, and had no shortage of goalkicking options up forward.
Then there was Damien Papworth, who'd had some injuries during the year but won the medal for best-on-ground, and Matt Papworth who tied with Jeremy Quade for third in the club best-and-fairest.
"Jeremy, he was a class act. He was strong, strong over the ball. If the ball had to be won, he'd win it especially when things got tough," Currie says.
Indicating just where the Jets' consistency started, their two ruckmen, Robertson and Andrew Bonny, shared the club best-and-fairest.
"Matt Robertson's a dead-set standout. He's the most versatile player I've seen, who can play all positions and play them so well," Currie says.
But the passage of time has only affirmed the premiership wingman's view of the most powerful factor in premierships: leadership, and unity in your community.
"Successful clubs have good leaders. They set the scene. They have expectations of what sort of people they want playing at their club. Along with the committee they put together a side that we all get to play together and enjoy it," Currie says.
"That starts from your president, which was David Clark, leading his committee... it leads through to strappers, phsyios, spectators, volunteers, sponsors. The benefit of it is the community get a memory for a lifetime. Something that we can talk about 10, 20 years later, 30 years later, 50 years later!"
SOMETHING SPECIAL
The proof was in the pudding in 2007. The Jets had six teams in grand finals: four netball sides and two football grades. They came away with four flags with A and B Grade netball adding to the footballers' party.
Between 1991 and 2002, Ardlethan (three times) and Ariah Park-Mirrool (four times) had had nothing but heartbreak in first grade grand finals.
The big man Robertson was part of Ardlethan's 2002 loss, and knew how much the drought-breaking flag of '05 meant to the communities. But the second one felt like a fitting farewell.
"I think 2007 was probably thanking those older blokes for sticking with the club for a long time... it was more of a personal thing," Robertson says.
"Those blokes had nearly all been away and played football elsewhere but they'd been great clubmen for those clubs and just great footballers who got to experience a bit of success at home. There have been plenty of great footballers that have gone through both clubs that never got to win a grand final. These blokes deserved what they got and were lucky enough to get it."
Like Currie, Robertson was struck by the leadership, spirit and broad success. He left the Jets at the end of 2008, returning to Leeton. But the club will forever hold a warm place in his heart.
"Oh my word. Those years, 2002 onwards," he says.
"I think 2005 was probably the best year of footy I ever played on a personal level but it's pretty easy to play good footy when you've got confidence in your teammates. Not just first grade but the thing that probably doesn't get talked about is the Jets won reserve grade premierships in 2005, 2006 and 2007. There were footballers in those sides that could've waltzed into first grade sides around the area. They were strong."
Until Mitch Haddrill won two medals in the last three years, Robertson, in 2005, was the only player to win a league medal at the Jets. He was travelling nearly an hour-and-a-half to train.
"Oh, it was just good fun. I think it's like anything, if you enjoy what you're doing," he says. "We had a great committee as well. They were motivated and they were at training, every run, from the kids right through. They looked after us pretty well and the least we could do is play a bit of footy."
THE MAKING OF SOME
The Jets' high standards off the field were matched by the leadership on it.
What might have been a daunting prospect for Matt Hard brought out the best in him.
"You look at that group and you've got so many leaders, but they're all different. Probably a lot of non-vocal leaders but whether it's training habits or match-day or whatever they do... I learnt a lot," Hard says.
"Every time you coach you learn a lot but I didn't know anyone out there, so I was out of my comfort zone, and there were a lot of older legends, I guess, playing underneath you. You've got to be pretty firm in what you're doing and back yourself. I learnt a hell of a lot that year, that's for sure.
"It was pretty special when you look back at it... To say I played with Rob Harper and Ken Fairman and Matt Currie, big Matty Robertson was there, Jeremy Quade... some unbelievable footballers. I would have loved to have played a season with that side in their mid-20s because I don't think too many sides would have got near us to be honest."
Hard is confident it brought out the best in a young Jamie Maddox who followed him across from Coolamon.
"Tasting success was great for him, and then the next year he won the best-and-fairest and really came out of his shell. I think it was the start of him taking that next step in his football... he won a Quinn (Medal) and a few b-and-f's at Coolamon. Two years at the Jets really started that," Hard says.
Maddox impressed Harper. And so did Hard.
"I played under a lot of coaches and he probably knew the game better than most. Just little training drills, grid stuff... and he had good strategies," he says.
"I enjoyed playing under him. I would've like to have played under him when I was a bit younger and learning in the midfield."
RIGHT AT HOME
Harper, of course, was up in the goal square living the dream.
"I loved it. It was just a different role for me after always being in the midfield and you're getting tagged or whatever. I could just stay at full-forward and say, 'Righto, I'm staying inside the 50'," he laughs.
"I still loved the training. I trained twice a week. But I felt like it took the pressure off. Someone said it's more pressure because if you're full-forward you've got to kick the goals. But when you've got a good side, the ball's always coming down.
"It was just something different. I thought it was good. You get a good look at the game when you're just standing there looking at all the other people doing the stuff."
If a second premiership meant plenty to him, it was only because of those he was sharing it with, and one teammate stood out over many years.
"Kenny Fairman, I rate him as one of the best footballers I've ever played with," Harper says.
"Just never getting beaten one-on-one, and very athletic. He always played on the half-back line and that's where he was suited, attacking the ball. He was very hard. You could rely on him. He was a gun."
To be fair, there were a few of them in 2007.
Robertson was one. But he insists it wasn't all about established stars. Hard speaks glowingly of the commitment he was given by players across two grades, right from the pre-season. The star ruckman believes there was the right chemistry, as well as competition.
"We trained together with the twos and there were enough old blokes there to pull the young fellas into line and enough young blokes there to make it fun," Robertson says.
"It was just a great combination and away it went... Ged O'brien, Phil Davey, Skeeter (Andrew Bonny), Chris Bell... they went on to become stalwarts of the club. And Cal Litchfield, he was still at school in Leeton and in his first year of senior footy, playing good footy and he ended up winning a grand final! Lucky boy, that's all I say."